The C8 Chevy Corvette was undoubtedly one of the most anticipated cars of our lifetimes. Gearheads had been waiting for the ‘Vette to go mid-engined for decades, and finally, Chevy obliged. But the manufacturer hit an unfortunate snag early in the car’s production run that kept more than 100 Stingrays from ever hitting the road. In fact, they were all sent to a salvage yard, destined for dismantling and demolition. This is the story of how it happened.

If you have a strong memory, you might recall the tornado that damaged General Motors’ Bowling Green Assembly Plant in December 2021. The storm sparked a fire inside the facility, which exclusively builds Corvettes. At this point, the C8 had only been in production for a year, so there weren’t many running around yet. Seeing one in the wild was a treat, but seeing one after another pour into Stricker Auto Parts in Batavia, Ohio, was really something.

Brandon Woodley worked at the scrap facility as a dismantler, and nearly five years after those then-new Corvettes flooded his day job, he talked to me about the experience. “I had seen them in pictures, but I had never even seen one in person,” Woodley told me. “And then they come in and say, ‘All right, get to cutting.'” 

Woodley remembers that they were hauled in on transporters, just as if they were headed to a dealership. As he explained to me, many of them passed the salvage yard’s quality checks. When I asked if he saw any that were totally trashed, Woodley replied, “Not really. Not that I saw. Most of them, the damage wasn’t really that bad.”

Still, due to liability concerns, they all had to be torn apart. Stricker Auto Parts made sure every VIN was removed from the body shells, which employees like Woodley then cut in half. “They didn’t want anybody trying to rebuild and make a car out of it,” he said. Can you imagine how many YouTubers would have scrambled to buy a scrapped C8 back then?

Woodley told me that many parts were sent back to GM, including entire drivetrains. These were all Stingrays with the 6.2-liter V8; Chevy hadn’t begun Z06 production yet. “They would drain all the fluids out, and then they’d come to me,” Woodley explained. “They’d hand me a stack of tags of what they wanted off, and I would pull every single thing off and put all the bolts for it in little baggies and tag it up and send it out.”

Curious what became of these salvaged parts, I asked GM if any of them were reused in new Corvettes. A company spokesperson replied, “Vehicles damaged by the December 2021 storm were scrapped. No parts from these vehicles were used in new builds. Despite significant damage to the plant in the storm, the Bowling Green Assembly team rallied to resume normal production 11 days later with the full standard of quality owners expect.”

You could say some aspects of this operation were secretive at the time, but since nearly five years have passed, the unofficial statute of limitations is up. Woodley no longer works for Stricker Auto Parts, and he explained that while he never had to sign anything prohibiting him from speaking publicly about the cars, he still waited until now to say something.

C8s are a lot more common these days. But at the time? People were lining up at the dealer, waiting for theirs to be delivered. And here these guys were, chopping them up into pieces.

Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com

The post When a Tornado Destroyed 100 Brand New Corvettes, This Salvage Yard Got to Work appeared first on The Drive.

As Americans, we get almost all of the cool trucks. It’s hard to complain when we have the Ford F-150 Raptor R, Ram TRX SRT, and Chevy Silverado ZR2, among others. But that doesn’t mean the Ford Ranger Super Duty would never be welcome here—especially in its new 6×6 configuration.

The Ranger Super Duty is exactly what it sounds like: A midsize truck with harder-working hardware underneath. It’s rated to tow 9,920 pounds and carry 4,370 pounds of payload in stock form, thanks to upgraded suspension that pairs nicely with a 3.0-liter turbodiesel V6. Markets like Australia eat that up, but the six-wheeler you’re looking at here was actually developed for the United Kingdom Ministry of Defense’s Light Mobility Vehicle (LMV) program.

Ford already sells a tray-bed variant of the truck, but this takes it a step further by adding an extra axle. “We engineered Ranger for conversion from day one,” explained Jim Baumbick, president of Ford Europe. Specifically, the Blue Oval designed the Ranger Super Duty 6×6 for duty as both a troop-carrying vehicle and a battlefield ambulance.

The truck’s cab is ready to work in these applications, too. It sports a 12-inch screen, and while wireless Apple CarPlay probably isn’t that crucial to the job, the display allows operators to easily control “third-party tactical mission software,” as Ford explains. It also has pre-wired auxiliary switches that can be used for emergency lighting, communications, or whatever the heck.

From what I can tell, there’s no guarantee yet that Ford will supply these to the UK Ministry of Defense. They were created to compete for the government’s LMV program, so it’s possible that another vehicle might get the honors. Regardless, I think Ford should build these and sell them to the public. Including me. For work, of course.

Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com

The post Dear Ford: Don’t Gatekeep the 6×6 Ranger Super Duty You Made for England appeared first on The Drive.

Dual-clutch transmissions have always been pitched to car enthusiasts as lightning-fast. If you want engagement, get a manual; if you want speed, get a DCT. Automakers like Porsche and Nissan pioneered the hardware in the 911 and GT-R, respectively, before more pedestrian performance cars like the Hyundai’s N models adopted it later. But we’re at a point now where even a utility side-by-side like the 2026 Honda Pioneer that I’m testing has a DCT.

You’re probably wondering: “Why?” Well, that’s what I’m here to talk about.

To be clear, not many UTVs have DCTs: The Can-Am Maverick R, the Honda Pioneer, and the Honda Talon. That last one is the only rig of the three I haven’t tested so far. These machines—the maniacal Maverick R, with its praying mantis-like front suspension, and the hard-working Pioneer—have little else in common. Still, the shifting experience is mighty similar.

I’ve already written at length about the Maverick R, but it’s worth remarking on the transmission specifically. It actually makes a ton of sense in a rig like this, with its turbocharged engine making 240 horsepower. The DCT makes it feel more like a rally car than, say, the Polaris RZR Pro R does with its more traditional continuously variable transmission.

A shiftable transmission is your friend when you need to deploy more revs in a moment’s notice. Sure, the CVTs in modern performance side-by-sides are a lot better than they used to be, but you can’t replace the ability to find third gear with a quick shifter-paddle pull. Imagine a scenario where you’re rushing downhill and encounter a tight series of esses with trees on either side. When you can downshift purposefully, engine braking will help slow you down while the revs remain high for a ready throttle response.

Plus, it just feels sick.

The Pioneer’s dual-clutch, on the other hand, is unique. Not much else about the UTV is sporty; however, the six-speed certainly exhibits the thunks and thuds characteristic of a DCT. That’s because there’s always a clutch waiting to engage after the other disengages. One clutch handles the odd gears, while another handles the even gears.

The new Pioneer has four drive modes: Comfort, Normal, Sport, and Tow/Haul. Each one tweaks the machine’s power delivery and shift points. Now, you might not feel the differences as much in a side-by-side with a more typical CVT, but they’re absolutely noticeable in the Pioneer. Rather than a deafening whine from the engine running wide-open as it gains acceleration, the Honda’s parallel-twin climbs through the rev range with each shift. In that sense, it’s far more truck-like.

Speaking of trucks, the Pioneer works more like they do than your average side-by-side. It doesn’t seem like it’s straining under load, and in my experience, it’s been easier to control in low-speed environments. That’s partially because you can use the transmission and, in turn, the engine to help slow you down. It’s the same tactic I talked about with the Maverick R in the esses, except applied to towing a utility trailer or hauling a load of firewood in the back.

And then there’s the feel. It’s hard to describe the Pioneer’s transmission without using some onomatopoeia. Accelerating after a steep uphill brings on a casual sa-konk, while a spirited stab at the throttle builds more of a theatrical response from the DCT. Heavy gas pedal application smooths out the shifts, but not to the point where they’re unnoticeable. It’s genuinely a strange experience when you’re used to a CVT.

A Tale of Two UTVs: Spec Comparison

My concern with DCTs in UTVs is not surprising: What happens if they break? I won’t pretend that CVTs are bulletproof, but they’re a lot more common, and many dedicated riders are skilled enough to repair them on the trail. I’m not sure what the DCT equivalent of a slipped belt is, but I doubt you could easily do it on the side of a giant hill. And just to be clear, these Honda DCTs don’t have a horrible reputation for reliability, as far as I’ve seen. It’s just like all the technological advancements in today’s diesel trucks: great when they work, a major headache when they don’t.

To answer the question of whether or not UTVs need fancy dual-clutch transmissions, I’d have to say “no.” But they have their benefits if you’re willing to maintain them properly. Just make sure that you’ve done your research before you drive one, because the sensation of grabbing another gear like you’re some type of race car driver might be too intoxicating to turn down—no matter how well it fits your use case.

Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com

The post Do UTVs Really Need Fancy Dual-Clutch Transmissions? Let’s See appeared first on The Drive.

Abandoned vehicles are a problem across the country, and especially out west. With so much land and wide-open space, people take it upon themselves to ditch their unwanted cars wherever they feel like. That’s enough to upset some folks, and for others, it’s enough to take action. That’s what happened recently when one tow truck operator criticized another company online for leaving its crashed wrecker on the side of a Colorado mountain. As is often the case on the internet, however, that’s only part of the story.

Milo’s Towing and Recovery responded to a call on Sept. 29, 2025, that proved treacherous. Owner Chris Frey says they were dispatched to Hamlin Gulch Road, a trail that was covered in snow, and his squarebody Chevrolet wrecker slid off a rock. It ended up in a precarious position, but it got worse from there as the ground gave way when the driver attempted to run a winch cable to a nearby tree. No one was hurt—except for the Chevy.

Frey explained in a Facebook post that they decided not to chance a risky recovery with winter taking hold. He claims he was in touch with the Forest Service, which allegedly agreed it’d be best to wait until spring. The truck sat there through the coldest months, banged up and still wearing its Milo’s branding.

Fast forward to May 31, 2026, and that’s where Zac Beaman gets involved. Beaman owns a tow truck himself, and he’s one who was driven to action by all the abandoned vehicles littered across the Rocky Mountains. He posts his off-road experiences on Facebook and YouTube under the name Zacstrax. When he came across the wrecked Milo’s truck, he reached out to the company about retrieving it, but they supposedly couldn’t agree on a price.

From there, Beaman criticized Milo’s and Frey for leaving the truck on a mountainside for months. His original post got quite a bit of traction online before he removed it.

“[Zac] reached out to me about my truck and offered to pull it out for me with a cost of 3k to 5k [dollars],” Frey shared on Facebook. “My message back to him was confused. I said I would leave it there before I paid that kind of money to have someone else remove it. My meaning behind that was not to abandon it up there at all. That was never, ever my intention. That is why my logos, phone number, license plates, and VIN were still on it. I never, ever wanted to leave my truck up there. The plan was always to remove it.”

Frey was finally able to retrieve the Milo’s Chevy on August 25. It took a lot, seeing as the rear axle snapped in half on the way up. But all the hullabaloo was enough to make it on CBS Colorado, which reported on the viral back-and-forth.

“I’m glad he got it out. That’s all that matters,” Beaman told the outlet. “That’s more satisfying than anything. It was in a tough spot, too. He did a good job of getting it out.”  

Beaman and Frey still aren’t buds. That said, Beaman says there’s been an uptick in abandoned vehicle recoveries since he first posted about Frey’s truck on that mountainside. In his eyes, it’s a net positive.

Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com

The post Vintage Chevy Tow Truck That Was Stuck on a Mountain for a Year Is Finally Pulled Out appeared first on The Drive.

The mighty M100SX is the biggest bulldog that Mack Trucks ever built. Only three examples were made in the 1960s, and just one still exists today. It was acquired by The Mahan Collection Foundation in New Jersey a couple of years ago, and I wrote a detailed story about the giant’s new shot at life after more than five decades. Now, the truck’s restoration is nearly complete, and it’s driving under its own power again thanks to the 1,788-cubic-inch diesel engine under the hood.

If you want the comprehensive backstory on the Mack—right down to its original build schematics and spec sheet—be sure to check out my write-up from 2024. In case you’re in a hurry, I’ll give you a brief breakdown.

The rig you’re looking at here shipped from the factory with a two-stroke Detroit 12V149T engine making 1,000 horsepower at 1,900 rpm. Original measurements show it spanning 32 feet and 1 inch from the front bumper to the back of the frame, and it’s 13 feet and 6 inches tall. It tipped the scales at 95,485 pounds without any bodywork, and the payload capacity exceeds 100 tons thanks to a GVWR of 331,875 pounds.

After several years of infrequent back-and-forth, The Mahan Collection Foundation was able to acquire the M100SX. It had sat for a long while at the Pile Foundation Construction lot in Far Rockaway, New York, on Long Island. Getting it back in running condition took nearly two and a half years, but clearly, it was worth the effort:

You can hear the big Detroit making noise with its unique center exhaust stacks. Because the engine compartment is far larger than the cab—it’s not even close—the operator sits off and to the right. And before you ask why they don’t let it run wide-open on the highway, just know that this truck only ever topped out at 28.8 miles per hour. The gearing is low and the movement is slow; such is the case with heavy off-road haulers like this.

I’ve reached out to The Mahan Collection Foundation for more information on the Mack’s restoration. Hopefully, I can bring you a more detailed follow-up that explains what went into the big job. One way or another, we can all be glad that a piece of trucking history is back in action. It almost brings a tear to a guy’s eye…

Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com

The post World’s Largest Mack Truck Is Driving Again After Major Restoration appeared first on The Drive.

If you find yourself in a big storm without backup power ready to go, you’ll likely have a hard time picking up a generator at the store. Those go quickly when the power goes out, and building a genset yourself can get complicated. But if you have the right equipment lying around—which, surprisingly, can include a 2012 Chevy Cruze—you can keep the essentials going for five days (or more).

Two weeks ago, in mid-August, the town of Valparaiso in Indiana was declared a disaster area. The storms that ripped through the northern part of the state forced thousands to go without power. At least one person who lives there turned to their car for emergency electrical supply, and they uploaded the setup to their YouTube channel.

The car in question is a 2012 Chevy Cruze with the 1.4-liter turbo four-cylinder. Now, that’s not especially large as far as car engines go, but it’s plenty big for a stationary generator. Where something like the Bowtie sedan is limited is in its electrical power supply. But as this owner explains, the compact is better suited for this job than others.

This particular Cruze sports an H7 AGM battery, which is an upgrade over the standard flooded lead-acid one, as well as a factory 130-amp alternator. With the battery wired to a 2,000-watt pure sine wave inverter, rated to handle surges up to 4,000 watts, the car handled a decent number of household appliances. It was apparently enough to supply juice to two full-size refrigerators, a full-size upright freezer, a TV, lighting, and office equipment including a printer, a laptop, and an external monitor. Not bad!

With the car running for days on end, it was able to provide a steady range of 12.2 to 12.8 volts—for the most part. Under heavy loads, it typically dipped to around 11.8 volts, but they did see a low of 10.9 volts. That’s enough to trip the circuit, though they didn’t report any damage to their appliances or devices. In fact, the car would reactively increase the idle to 1,000-1,200 rpm to help spin the alternator.

After more than 120 hours of idling, the Cruze ran through several five-gallon gas jugs’ worth of fuel. The owner estimates that it consumed .22 gallons per hour, which really isn’t that bad. He’d get in the car every once in a while to give it a rev, but other than that, it was low-maintenance. And just to be safe, they sent some oil off for analysis to see if the five-day stint had any negative effects on the engine.

I’m not telling you to buy a Chevy Cruze just for this purpose. But if you already have one? Shoot. Maybe you should buy whatever you lack to make this happen in a pinch.

Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com

The post This Chevy Cruze Powered a House for Five Days During an Emergency Outage appeared first on The Drive.

I’m a writer, but I know words have their limitations. I can make you feel this or that way with my cadence, deploying poetic techniques to make the voice in your head rise and fall as needed. I can connect to your sensibilities with folksy vocab like “oughta” or “gotta.” I can even lull you into comfort or drive you to decision depending on how directly I address you. But words alone can’t do it all.

Fortunately, art exists in many forms to make you feel in many ways. If I penned an engaging essay on what it’s like to drive a Safari-modded Porsche 944, you’d only pick up on what I told you. Or you could watch this short film called Jaunt, which stars such a car and creates emotions I just can’t convey—at least, not this well.

Jaunt has been shown around the globe as part of the Banff Centre Mountain Film World Tour, among others. It’s the work of Blk Elk Co., a creative studio from the Ozark hills of Northwest Arkansas. They’re incredibly handy with cameras of all kinds, but of course, cinematography doesn’t end there.

They sent me an early screening of Jaunt a while back, and now, it’s on YouTube. I chatted with them to learn how they made me feel what I felt when I watched it for the first time, so the rest of this story will be about that. First, however, you’ve gotta watch the four-minute film:

Pretty slick, huh? Although it’s short, there’s a lot going on here to engage your senses. I’m fairly naive about how that’s done, which is why I asked the film’s director, Daniel Mitchell, to explain.

Rather than simply telling me, using words and their pesky limits, Mitchell annotated some stills of his favorite shots.

Let’s start with the opening shot. Not only is there a main camera operator, who’s tasked with proper positioning via the stabilizing Dana dolly, but there’s another crew member off to the right whose job is to keep the shot sharp with a tool called a focus puller. He uses the wireless handset with a rotating dial to adjust focus as needed.

It takes work to set the proper stage. Prop selection is key, too, as the crew was able to reinforce the drab office space theme with thrift store items. A CRT monitor with no visible logo makes the scenario seem extra generic, along with the stand-up book whose spine reads, “Real World, Here I Come.”

Basically, it’s the setting you’d expect to find a fella in who’s just been handed a stack of paperwork to complete.

Dissecting these scenes side-by-side makes sense as they kickstart the action. Rewatching the film for a second time, I wondered just how they made the flip clock spin so fast. Artificially speeding through frames seemed unlikely, as moving the cards one at a time would have been tedious. I was tickled to learn that they used a power drill to spin through time, lickety-split.

This scene’s jazz soundtrack also does a lot to build the frenetic energy. Nothin’ gets you goin’ like horns, interspersed with flashy percussion that spares no cymbal. A piano virtuoso carries the tune along.

Mitchell told me he was especially proud that they could pull off the transition shown between the left and right scenes. The pitch-black setting in the film’s first part was staged inside the 944 Safari building, which also houses a functioning modification shop. It was done in a single shot to take you, the viewer, from the plain-jane desk atmosphere to one teeming with life. Pneumatic impacts whir and crank plenty of ugga-duggas as the actor climbs inside the Porsche.

This particular machine is 944 Safari’s exemplary build. It’s a naturally aspirated model, though as any 944 owner will tell you, the engine is not what makes these special. The front-rear layout is what’s most unique, and unlike the more powerful 928, these are lighter and far more flickable. Daniel Davis, owner of the Porsche and the shop, has found a pretty solid recipe to capitalize on those strengths: taller suspension for better clearance, more aggressive tires that help it get around on gravel, and Hella lights for vibes as well as visibility. Racks abound to make it more usable, as there isn’t much room for a mountain bike or a full-size spare in (or on) a stock 944.

As the P-car exits, the frame benefits from natural lighting. It’s chased out the door by the almost comical director-cinematographer combo on a longboard. Really, though, the pressure is on the driver. And don’t think for a second that they hired a stuntman for that job, as it’s all the same guy—from the desk, to the car, to the bike, and back—named Justice Jax Berry. Quite the renaissance man, eh?

After a sweet parking lot drift, the 944 heads for a dirt road outside of town. While there is some music in the background—an original song called “How Sad” by The Dark Skinned Ghost—you also get a healthy dose of ambient noise. The throaty, big-bore four-cylinder makes a nice sound, and anybody who likes to party can appreciate the sound of tires slinging gravel.

This is very much the “journey” portion of the story. Justice even makes it more interesting by putting a couple of tires in the ditch, which is the type of thing you can do in a lifted car. It’s all captured cleanly via the cable cam and overhead drone.

By all measures, these woodsy shots were the trickiest to get. You may or may not know that Northwest Arkansas is home to some of the country’s greatest mountain-biking trails. (Walmart is headquartered there, and the Walton family pours a ton of money into those projects.) It’s absolutely central to the culture, so capturing it as part of the film makes sense.

Plus, who doesn’t like a Porsche with a bike rack on the back?

Tempo is everything in this scene, and keeping rhythm with the actor/rider/do-it-all-dude was understandably tricky. The cable cam can track up to 43 miles per hour, but nailing the timing took work. A crew member controls the cable cam remotely, while the gimbal feeds footage to a handheld display.

Because they were able to nail the pace here, you get a sense of speed. The shot stays focused on Justice, while trees breeze by in the foreground. It’s a little bit of practical magic.

It all ends back where things started, in the dark of the warehouse, with a bit more mud on Justice’s get-up. He ditched the button-down and tie for a long-sleeve tee. And once the faceless boss welcomes him back in, you realize all this was done on his lunch break.

A short jaunt can really make a difference, even on the most mundane days.

Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com

The post The Shot-for-Shot Artistry Behind This Safari Porsche Short Film Is Ace appeared first on The Drive.

People love the Slantnose Porsche 911. Not everybody, of course, but many do—and that list is not just limited to random internet commenters. One customer with enough money even commissioned Porsche to build a one-off variant, dubbed the Flachbau RS, through its exclusive Sonderwunsch program. That car most certainly will not enter series production, but as a Porsche executive explained to The Drive at Monterey Car Week, we could someday see a Slantnose 911 model on offer to the public.

If you’ll remember, the original Slantnose 911 road car began as a one-off. Mansour Ojjeh, owner of Techniques d’Avant Garde (TAG), ordered the famous 935 Street through the Sonderwunsch program. Porsche delivered the machine in 1983, and based on the demand that followed, the manufacturer offered the flat-top look to other customers. Porsche itself estimates that 948 of those cars were so spec’d in the 1980s.

When The Drive asked if something similar could happen today, Porsche’s Vice President of Product and Individualization Alexander Fabig said, “Yes. I mean, the idea of Sonderwunsch was always that this is an inspiration for our series products.”

“And we have various examples over the last 50 years where product substance started as a customer’s individual topic,” Fabig continued. “And then, as you said, it trickled down the process line of first becoming an exclusive Manufaktur option, maybe becoming a standard option later on, and then even becoming a series product.”

Fabig provided yet more examples to show that, indeed, there’s a pattern:

“So if you think about the power kit X50 and X51 from back in the day, that started as a customer individual. Then we had it as an option. And then later on, the 911 Turbo S was the result of this initial thought. So yes, it’s very well possible that you see not exactly this, but elements of it, or reinterpretations of [it] as a series offer.”

Currently, Porsche has an arrangement with those who commission custom paint colors. They remain exclusive to the buyer for a year, but after that, they go into the company’s catalog to recoup development costs. Fabig indicated something similar could be done on the more radical projects, like the Slantnose.

The Flachbau RS that Porsche brought to Monterey Car Week is based on a 2018 GT2 RS. As such, it’s a maniacal machine with a 3.8-liter, twin-turbo flat-six making 700 horsepower and 553 lb-ft of torque. Don’t count on a future Slantnose 911 sporting exactly that same setup, but that’s not to say it’ll be slow by any means. Keep in mind that the current-gen Turbo S makes 701 hp thanks to its newfangled T-Hybrid system.

Keep in mind that this isn’t an absolute confirmation of a series production Slantnose 911. But if that is announced someday, just remember this blog.

Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com

The post How a Porsche 911 Slantnose Could Reach Series Production appeared first on The Drive.

Even if you’ve never purchased a tank of diesel in your life, the price of it matters. Promise. So much of the United States’ logistics depends on the fuel, and right now, it’s staggeringly expensive at $5.62 per gallon on average nationwide. There’s a short list of reasons for that. And even though current diesel prices haven’t broken the all-time record yet, there are telltale signs that they could soon.

Reuters reported Tuesday morning that Russia could continue its fuel export ban through September. You might not have known there was a fuel export ban in place, and that’s OK. The long and short of it is that successful Ukrainian drone attacks have significantly damaged Russia’s refineries, kneecapping its production. Typically, Russia is the world’s second-leading fuel exporter behind Saudi Arabia. The aftershock is felt all the way in the United States (and beyond).

Likewise, fuel is having a difficult time moving through the Strait of Hormuz. While ship volume there used to average around 100 vessels per day, only a single-digit number is being allowed through right now. And no matter where that drastically reduced amount of fossil fuel is headed, a chokepoint affects supply everywhere. Demand certainly hasn’t decreased, making the oil that is available particularly expensive. Of course, this has been the case for some time, as traffic through the strait has been severely restricted since late February. What we’re seeing now is just a continued supply limitation that drives up cost.

Nothing on this scale exists in a vacuum, either. Axios reports that diesel fuel accounts for 3-5% of costs for U.S. farmers producing wheat, corn, and other major crops. Before you even take into account over-the-road transport, its economic impact is substantial.

Then you consider how much this affects truckers, as they’re currently paying an average of $1.94 more per gallon than they were a year ago. On a truck with dual 100-gallon tanks, that’s an additional $388 per fill-up from empty. If we’re being generous, a loaded semi-truck may get eight miles per gallon while loaded on the highway, meaning they might stop for fuel twice in a week. All of this is rough math, but for eight fuel fill-ups per month, that would total $9,040 in diesel alone—$3,104 more than it would have cost in August 2025.

Perhaps you can see how impactful that is on a nation’s economy. When the machinery powering key industries becomes roughly one-third more costly to operate, the pain comes quickly, and this time around, it’s holding on for an especially long bout. Diesel prices have yet to revisit their historic peak of $5.82 per gallon, achieved in May 2022, but 20 cents isn’t far to go considering the hikes we’ve seen already.

Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com

The post Diesel Prices Are About to Break Records. Here’s Why They Keep Rising appeared first on The Drive.

If I overheard someone talking about Jeff Gordon racing wheel-to-wheel with Bill Elliott, Bobby Labonte, and Rusty Wallace, I would assume it was a conversation about ’90s NASCAR. As it turns out, though, those icons of American motorsport competed in IROC Pontiac Trans Ams and Firebirds just last weekend. In the year of our Lord 2026. On the streets of our nation’s capital. Why did nobody mention this beforehand?

Now, I’m sure somebody did, but I work in the car media biz and only heard about it after Fox—the race’s broadcast partner—reported the results. I obviously could have missed the pre-race hype, but as I pulled up the highlights on YouTube, I saw tons of commenters saying the same:

The IROC competition ran ahead of the IndyCar Freedom 250, billed as Washington D.C.’s first-ever street course race. That event was heavily publicized, as it even reached mainstream outlets like Fox News and CNN. It was a 147-lap event won by Kyle Kirkwood, and while he’s an accomplished driver, you’d have a much better chance of getting someone like my uncle to tune in to a race involving “Awesome Bill from Dawsonville.”

Just to be clear, I’m not trashing IndyCar at all. I love the series. But when we’re talking about marketability, nostalgia wins big. And it was an old-fashioned IROC race, where drivers from different disciplines competed in similar machinery; Indy 500 winners Tony Kanaan and Helio Castroneves were among the field, as was road racer Tommy Kendall.

Gordon ended up winning both 10-lap races, with Kurt Busch finishing in second each time. (Castroneves and Kanaan stood on the podium’s third step in the first and second contests, respectively.) That sort of thing tends to happen when you put Gordon in a car prepped by Ray Evernham, one of the most dominant driver-and-crew-chief duos ever.

I, for one, love seeing the stick-shift V8s from the late ’90s and early ’00s roaring down Pennsylvania Avenue. And even though Gordon is 55 now, he’s still super fast. Heck—Bill Elliott is 70, and I doubt he thought twice about climbing inside the car.

Hopefully, this isn’t a one-and-done event, and we’ll get to see these drivers go at it again. But I’m not holding my breath. I’m happy for the folks who got to see it! It simply would’ve been better had others caught wind of the race before it happened.

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The post Jeff Gordon and Bill Elliott Raced IROC Pontiacs Wheel-to-Wheel in DC Last Weekend. Who Knew? appeared first on The Drive.

Back in July, we blogged about a handy tool called the StepRanger. It’s effectively a motorized wagon—one that you stand up to drive, with a twist throttle and a handbrake. In the time since, the company has sent me a unit to test, and I got the chance to chat with the co-founders, who told me all about it. So much about the electric utility cart is nifty and neat, but what I’m most intrigued by is how people are using them.

As a quick primer, the StepRanger is small enough to fit in the bed of a pickup, and mighty enough to haul 1,000 pounds. It has a coil-sprung front suspension and a rear differential that looks like a miniature Ford 9-inch. A pedestal kicks down and is held in place with pins, and that’s where you stand as you operate it. There’s a kick-down lever for high- and low-range, while a rocker switch on the handlebars allows you to choose between low, medium, and high battery power.

I’ll post my own review of the StepRanger in due time, but for now, I’m gathering inspo from folks like Rob Bitinas in Plymouth, Massachusetts. His is an All-Terrain model that he’s fitted with a rear hitch as well as a boat rack that slides into the standard 2-inch front receiver.

“He hauls a 12-foot aluminum jon boat with the outboard still mounted from his house down to the water,” StepRanger Co-Founder John Harrington told me. “His driveway is 400 feet and straight uphill. He is half a mile from the ocean, so the machine lives in salt air.”

Then there’s Ed Lucas, who utilized some creative recycling techniques on his rig. The StepRanger ships in a crate, and rather than throwing the plywood away, Lucas trimmed them to fit as enclosed side panels. It looks almost factory stock, too.

One of the coolest ways I’ve seen someone use these is in a logging operation. I personally cut and haul a ton of firewood, and the StepRanger absolutely makes sense there. But Tim Jaster in Colorado has taken it a step further by installing a rear hitch and using it to mount a custom-built timber trailer.

The trailer straddles each log, and a modestly sized tong attached to a hand-crank reel grapples them. With the front of the log cinched up by a chain, Jaster then pulls them back to his band sawmill with the StepRanger. It’s not going to yank a 20-foot oak tree that’s 18 inches around, but a typical limbed spruce cut into sections shouldn’t be too big to handle.

And the last one that Harrington and his StepRanger co-founder, Aaron Jones, sent my way was from Turnkey Logic Control. That’s a hydraulic repair service in Ohio, and as you can see, they’ve totally removed the sides from their rig. What appears to be grip tape around the edges keeps everything from sliding off. At the front, there’s a huge honkin’ vice that must make field repairs a breeze.

These work great for indoor service, too, as they are battery-powered and have a compact footprint. StepRangers even have a decently loud horn that you control with a simple button push, which lets people know you’re turning a corner on the factory floor or what have you.

Plenty of other StepRanger owners have modified their wagons to fit their needs, too. Harrington and Jones told me about one scrapyard explorer with limited mobility who installed a remote lift, making it easier to load it onto his Chevy Avalanche’s hitch-mounted platform. Another customer with multiple sclerosis installed a hand crank that loads heavy items into and out of the StepRanger. Then, maybe the wackiest example they mentioned to me was a makeshift spelunking cart that meanders around caves.

It’s super cool hearing how an entire community of makers has formed around these machines. Harrington and Jones both know so much about the lives their wagons live because it’s really just the two of them on staff. All customer service requests go to them directly, as Harrington left his gig at Google to help run StepRanger full-time. As for Jones, he still owns a company that designs heated outdoor furniture, but StepRanger is now his big focus as well.

I’m all for people modifying their vehicles to work smarter, not harder. I just didn’t have a clue such a thing was going on with these manned micro-trucks.

Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com

The post These Stand-On Motorized Wagons Have Created a Fascinating Modding Community appeared first on The Drive.

Some people get tired of waiting on others to build their dream ride. I know of one fella who swapped a big-block into a C8 Corvette, for example—he couldn’t hold out any longer for Chevrolet to do it. What you’re looking at here is sort of the same story. It’s a double-wide Caterpillar D8 recreation that runs a pair of big inline-six diesel engines, and it was built to honor the three original units from the 1950s that no longer exist.

Caterpillar has built the D8 in some form since 1935, and a heavily modernized version is still on offer today. But back when the D8 had only been around for 13 years or so, Peterson Tractor Company had an idea. See, Peterson Tractor was and is still a key Caterpillar dealer on the West Coast. Some of its customers were literally building San Francisco and other major metropolises out there, so they needed larger equipment than Caterpillar sold at the time.

Enter the big-boy D8 with two D13000 engines measuring 1,246 cubic inches apiece. Peterson Tractor built three of these in the 1950s, and they effectively combined a pair of D8s behind a single blade. The result was tremendous pushing power—crucial for construction outfits on the hilly terrain of Northern California, Oregon, and so on. And while 200 hp might not sound like a lot now, it was certainly a feat back then, as the larger Caterpillar D9 was still years away.

Each of these D8 Twin Dozers was used and abused. Tragically for treasure-hunting collectors, none of the originals made it out alive. Then, in time for Peterson CAT’s 80th anniversary, they built a new fourth iteration in 2016.

Like the first batch of extra-large D8s, this one sports mechanically linked D13000s that feature gasoline-powered pony motors. Those are responsible for starting the diesel engines, which can be divorced via a lever that engages and disengages the inboard steering clutches. Operators can run it from the left or right side, depending on which angle has the best view of the blade.

The dozer in question sat outside Peterson CAT’s facility in Hillsboro, Oregon, for eight years after its completion. The sun really did a number on it, oxidizing the paint, while water also found its way into one of the engines. A restoration was in order, then, and Nate Degerstedt saw the project through.

You can listen to Degerstedt tell the tractor’s story in the video below from SEFILMS on YouTube. He recounts serial number 004’s origins, name-dropping the folks who were instrumental in making it happen. Well-known Caterpillar collectors Ed Akin and Glen Ghilotti worked alongside the Doyle family, who now own Peterson CAT, to source the parts for the special machine.

All in all, it’s an incredibly cool unit, and you can appreciate it even if you know nothing about heavy equipment. Necessity is the mother of invention, and that’s no more evident than in the D8 Twin Dozer.

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The post Double-Wide CAT Dozer With ‘Siamese’ Diesel Engines Is the Work of Dedicated Collectors appeared first on The Drive.

A gearhead’s favorite pastimes include imagining engine swaps for their project cars. Naturally, though, there are limitations. Engine size is perhaps the greatest factor, as it’s hard to stuff a V12 into a Miata, while you also have to consider cylinder configuration, electronics compatibility, and more. But there is an application for horsepower and torque that’s practically unlimited—a true blank slate—and that’s gensets. That’s what makes this person’s choice of a 225-cubic-inch Chrysler slant-six all the more interesting.

You can say a lot about this unit, but first and foremost, we have to talk about how pretty it is. The unorthodox generator engine, which powered all types of workhorse vehicles between 1959 and 1991, sits neatly inside its wheeled cart. SmallEngineMechanic on YouTube built the whole-home backup power device, painting it blue to match the rest of the equipment while wiring it meticulously. Seriously, just look inside that cabinet.

And then there’s the hardware. Standing on one side of the genset, you see the engine’s character trait on full display: The block tilted 30 degrees off-center. Walk to the other side, and you find it’s been converted to run throttle-body injection with Holley Sniper EFI. Whereas lots of generators run propane or natural gas, this one is fueled by gasoline, seemingly for convenience’s sake.

The cylinders were bored .060 over to go along with new pistons, rings, bearings, and a rebuilt head. It also enjoys a fresh oil pump and water pump—key components for a stationary power plant.

It’s unclear how much oomph this particular slant-six makes, but factory stock examples made anywhere between 145 and 180 horsepower. Either way, it’s able to support up to 30 kilowatts of backup power here—way more than a Ford F-150 Lightning’s 9.6 kilowatts—all while running pretty darn quietly. You can hardly hear the exhaust, as the radiator fan is really the loudest component of all. That might be the opposite of what you want in a hot rod, but if the engine is powering your air conditioner while you sleep, quieter is better.

In the video below, you can watch the SmallEngineMechanic make a house call to learn why the genset isn’t running right. Turns out, a faulty ignition coil was causing it to spit and sputter after 20 minutes or so of run time. Replacing that coil and adjusting the governor gain was all it took to get the unit in shape, as they tested it with a mobile military load bank.

I won’t pretend to know everything about gensets—this has a single-phase Stamford alternator and a Basler DGC 2020 digital controller, for those who care—but I’m just chuffed to see the Chrysler slant-six still in service. Sure, engines like these deserve a break every once in a while, but they were made to work.

Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com

The post Hot-Rod 1976 Chrysler Slant-Six Now Powers a Whole House appeared first on The Drive.

Good golly, I love this truck. Chances are, you do too, seeing as you clicked on the little linky-link. It’s a crew-cab 1986 Chevrolet Kodiak with an enclosed hauler bed that’ll carry your coolest cars in style. The machine has certainly made its rounds, and if you’re quick on your feet, it just might land in your driveway next.

I first saw the rig on Finnegan’s Garage while surfing YouTube one night, and now it’s for sale on Bring a Trailer. The seller apparently purchased it from Mike Finnegan of Roadkill and Finnegan’s Garage fame back in 2022. Of course, the heavy Chevy would still be a big deal, even if an automotive celebrity hadn’t previously owned it.

The scale of this truck is insane. Its wheelbase alone measures 254 inches. For reference, that’s nearly large enough for an entire Silverado HD crew cab long bed to fit inside, nose to tail. And you could easily fit one of those trucks in the Kodiak’s cargo hold, as it touts 300 inches of interior space. Don’t worry about headroom, either, as the box measures 11 feet and 8 inches tall—and that’s not counting the roof-mounted AC unit.

The cab itself is an extended four-door, meaning there’s plenty of room for you and yours, and not just your toys. With captain’s chairs up front and a bench seat mounted clear at the back, everybody has their own space. Of course, you might forget anyone else is around as you glide through the gears in the five-speed Spicer manual transmission, not to mention the Eaton two-speed rear-end.

Powering all this heft along is a 10.4-liter Caterpillar 3208T. That letter at the end makes a world of difference, as it stands for “turbo.” Sure, such a large-displacement diesel V8 can do a lot of work, but boost never hurt. It’s still rated at a modest 250 horsepower.

Before the seller or Finnegan ever drove the big brute, it supposedly belonged to hot-rod designer Boyd Coddington, as well as Jim DeFrank of California Car Cover. The latter used it as a promotional piece, and some photos of its storefront days are included in the listing. It’s hard to think of a better (or louder) advertisement for your company than a rolling, 38-foot billboard.

Really, this truck speaks for itself. Either you love it and need to own it, or you don’t. Your chance to buy it ends today, August 18, unless it fails to meet reserve and you make an offer they can’t resist.

Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com

The post The World’s Largest Chevy Squarebody Truck Is Up for Sale appeared first on The Drive.

I like a Ford Mustang, but I love a Ford Mustang convertible. Of course, not every car is better as a droptop—heck, not every Mustang is better without a roof. But when we’re talking about the high-horsepower Dark Horse SC, which ought to eat up the miles in a hurry, it absolutely needs a convertible variant. Fortunately, it’s getting one.

Not much is different about this car besides the removable roof, and that’s a good thing. It gets Ford’s supercharged 5.2-liter V8 that makes 795 horsepower and 660 lb-ft of torque. And while a manual transmission would be ace, it doesn’t offer one; instead, the seven-speed Tremec dual-clutch automatic is the sole gearbox option.

The Dark Horse SC is unique among Mustangs in the sense that it’s far more powerful than a regular GT or Dark Horse, but still nowhere near as hardcore as a GTD. That’s why it deserves a convertible variant, if you ask me. Ford apparently feels the same, as the Dark Horse (non-SC) and GTD are only available as fixed-roof coupes. Customers for those cars want to go fast above all else; the Dark Horse SC driver knows their six-figure car is for cruising.

Of course, the Dark Horse SC Convertible won’t be available with the coupe’s track package. Why bother with a wing that adds 620 pounds of rear downforce when the air gets wonky aft of the windshield? Plus, track driving a car with almost 800 hp, no roof, and no cage sounds like a recipe for disaster.

The Pacific Coast Highway is where the Dark Horse SC Convertible belongs. Or Route 66. Or the Blue Ridge Parkway. You catch the drift. Let’s just hope the same can’t be said for the curb outside your local Starbucks parking lot. (Sorry, I know that joke is getting old.)

Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com

The post America Is Getting a 795-HP Convertible appeared first on The Drive.

You and I have many things in common, whether we know it or not. One is that we will likely never drive a Koenigsegg. Of course, my argument is already out the window if you’re a well-to-do entrepreneur who owns one, in which case… I’m not talkin’ to you. But for me and practically everyone else, we can only ooh and aww at what the Swedish manufacturer builds from afar. That doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate Koenigsegg’s work, and to prove it, I will spend the rest of this blog hyping up the new CCGT1 hypercar and all the ways you can shift it.

This car pays homage to a one-off Le Mans project from 2007. See, Christian von Koenigsegg developed a car (singular) to run at the 24-hour endurance race nearly 20 years ago, but some key rules changed just after it was completed. CVK decided not to let it lie forever, as the machine you’re looking at honors the original CCGT that has been refurbished and is headed for competitive use in the GT1 historic class.

Today’s darling, the new CCGT1, advances the formula with a new transmission technology called Koenigsegg Sequential Shift. It has a clutch pedal that drivers use specifically on take-off, while shifts are clutchless and no-lift thanks to ignition cuts. As you’d expect from a race car, the shifter is tall, and it’s just inches away from the steering wheel.

I can only imagine how sick it feels to rip through the nine (!!!) gears as the twin-turbo V8 roars and whirs behind your head. That engine makes 1,280 horsepower on pump gas or 1,600 hp on E85, and it can run on any blend of the fuels, too.

Now, let’s say you’d still rather have a traditional H-pattern gearbox. You’re in luck, as Koenigsegg is also offering the CCGT1 with its in-house-developed six-speed manual. If you keep up with Koenigsegg news, then you’ll remember that it already makes a manual hypercar: The CC850, a tribute to the company’s first homologated production car. This transmission is the same one you’ll find in that car.

What’s especially interesting is how Koenigsegg’s Light Speed Transmission makes all this possible. Both the six-speed manual and nine-speed sequential are LSTs at their core. This hunk of hardware has no flywheel and employs seven wet multi-disc clutches, which enable it to skip gears as needed. So, effectively, the manual and sequential can operate as automatic transmissions when in the corresponding mode. Kapeesh?

“The CCGT1 has two clear identities,” Christian von Koenigsegg said in a statement. “On the road, it’s a sublime tourer that is both comfortable and incredibly capable. But its origins are rooted in endurance racing, and that’s where the CCGT1 reveals its full character as a true celebration of the original CCGT—with the roof panel on or off!

“The CCGT1 offers something compelling to the weekend racer who also wants a daily driver with genuine extended capability on track. That’s what our optional track package allows. Fit it for race day through your local Koenigsegg dealer, and the character changes completely—from an exceptional weekend tourer with respectable track credentials into a true circuit weapon.” 

I haven’t even talked about the car’s active aero, which includes a wing that alternates between low-drag and air brake with 30 degrees of adjustment; the “Ghost Fibre” bodywork, which shimmers in the sun with what Koenigsegg calls “a crystal-white aramix/carbon matrix”; or the optional Track Package, which adds a carbon fiber roll cage, HANS-compatible seats, fire suppression, air jacks, tweaked suspension and braking setups, even more hardcore aero, and a second set of wheels with race tires.

Again, you and I are unlikely to ever drive the Koenigsegg CCGT1—especially if you aren’t one of the 70 customers who have already purchased one. (I know I’m not.) But I’m grateful that high-end, boutique hypercar companies still care about feel.

At least a guy can dream.

Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com

The post New Koenigsegg CCGT1 Hypercar Offers Yet Another Way to Shift With Your Hands appeared first on The Drive.

I’m not sure the average gearhead has ever heard of Franz von Holzhausen, but they certainly know his work. Billions of people around the world do—seriously—because he’s the senior design executive at Tesla. That means he led the styling efforts for the Model S, Model X, Model Y, and yup, even the Cybertruck. But his garage isn’t just filled with EVs.

Mr. von Holzhausen swung by Jay Leno’s Garage recently to show off his pride and joy: A 400-horsepower Pontiac Solstice with LS2 V8 power. I don’t think you could have guessed that was in his garage if I gave you a hundred chances, but it makes a little more sense when you learn he designed that, too. The story of how it came about is actually super interesting, as it was a secret assignment handed down from Bob Lutz.

Lutz put out an internal challenge to General Motors’ designers, asking them to create something that might reinvigorate the Pontiac brand. Around the mid-2000s, it desperately needed some help. Von Holzhausen’s sketch was the one chosen out of the bunch, and he says it was inspired by historic race cars he saw running around Laguna Seca.

Now, the Solstice was only ever built with four-cylinder engines: a naturally aspirated 2.4-liter was the base option, while later GXP models were offered with a 260-hp turbo 2.0-liter. This car had its four-banger plucked out from underneath the hood, and in its place sits an aluminum 6.0-liter that sounds friggin’ sick.

Mallet Performance Cars did the engine swap, and as you can tell, the North Carolina shop does a stellar job. GM is Mallet’s specialty, so it’s done a ton of these conversions. The LS2 is largely left alone, except for some exhaust work that is undoubtedly welcome.

Von Holzhausen has made relatively few modifications to the car otherwise. He installed a staggered set of wheels, with 19s in the front and 20s in the back, to more closely match his original Solstice design. The five-speed manual transmission remains stock, though I’ve seen them hold up to a lot more power than this in other builds.

I’m not saying this rights any wrongs the Cybertruck has committed, but it makes me feel at least a little better knowing the guy who designed it has good taste in cars otherwise. My friend Peter is crazy about the Pontiac Solstice / Saturn Sky platform, and for seemingly good reason. I’ve never owned one, but they look like fun—especially with the heart of a Corvette.

Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com

The post Bet You Can’t Guess What the Tesla Cybertruck Designer Has in His Garage appeared first on The Drive.

Old cars and Pixar films have at least one thing in common: They’re all getting remakes these days. Think of any automaker with a cachet of iconic names to pull from, and you can bet it’s squeezing them for all the marketing juice it can get. Ford itself has done this with models like the Mustang Mach-E, which is an electric crossover instead of a true-blood pony car, and the Maverick, which used to be a car and is now a four-door trucklet. That’s why it was surprising to see the Blue Oval go a different direction with its new $29,945 truck, named the “Fathom.” I almost would have bet on that rig being called the Ranchero.

Curious as to why Ford didn’t go the throwback route, we simply asked the company’s PR department. This is what a spokesperson told us:

“Fathom is an all-new vehicle, developed from the ground up on the new Universal Electric Vehicle Platform, using the new assembly tree manufacturing process and bringing new technology to Ford and the industry. All of these innovations called for a new, bold name—to give the vehicle personality, a soul, and make it a character in our customer’s life. This is the future of modern Ford.”

In other words, Ford wasn’t worried about appealing to the older generation with this one.

There are times when a retro name revival is appropriate. The new Bronco is arguably the best example, as it’s a legitimate and faithful follow-up to the 4x4s of yore. But with this new truck, the only thing it’s likely to have in common with Ford’s El Camino rival is a unibody construction. Everything else about the Fathom is different—not just from the Ranchero, but from practically everything else the Dearborn automaker has built up to now.

Ford believes this truck will pioneer manufacturing techniques it’ll apply to an array of future models. The emphasis is on faster assembly, resulting in products that are more affordable for both the customer and the company. That type of paradigm shift is deserving of its own name, Ford reckons.

So, what does the name “Fathom” even mean? Ford explained that sailors once used fathoms as units of measurement, often for depths of water in which you couldn’t see the bottom. It later took on a different definition: To understand a thing completely. “For a truck that started with years of trying to understand a specific customer,” Ford wrote, “that was the whole brief in six letters.”

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The post Here’s Why Ford Didn’t Use the Ranchero Name for Its Affordable Electric Truck appeared first on The Drive.

It was a long time coming, but the Ram Power Wagon is finally available with a Cummins diesel. The heavy-duty adventure pickup has long been a favorite among four-wheelers, but up to now, the 6.4-liter Hemi V8 gasser was the only engine option. We already knew that was changing for the 2027 model year, but we weren’t sure how much it would cost until Ram announced the starting price Monday morning. If you just have to buy one, be prepared to spend at least $89,560.

That price includes the destination fee, but it isn’t the absolute most you can spend on a Power Wagon with the 6.7-liter Cummins. The engine is a $12,995 option on its own, and if you want the Level 2 equipment group, you’ll have to fork over another $8,545. Don’t be surprised if you see diesel Power Wagons on the dealer lot for $100,000 or more.

Of course, it’s arguably the most unstoppable truck out there, now with more work capacity than ever. Ram says the three-quarter-ton Power Wagon can now tow 19,630 pounds with the compression-ignition powerplant, and max payload is rated at 2,930 pounds. For reference, the Cummins makes 430 horsepower and 1,075 lb-ft of torque. All of that is mighty impressive for a machine that has locking differentials front and rear, a push-button sway bar disconnect, and factory 34-inch tires.

Ram didn’t just toss the Cummins into the existing Power Wagon and say, “That’ll do.” It fitted even more skid plating underneath the truck to protect the diesel exhaust fluid tank, as well as the fuel tank and the transfer case. And with 31 gallons of diesel, it should be able to go more than 600 miles between fill-ups.

I bet we’ll see more diesel Power Wagons on the trails than gas-powered ones going forward, even with the higher price. Modern pickup drivers love to own the most extreme version of their truck, and it’s hard to resist the Cummins if you have the money for it. Just remember that if you spring for the optional engine over the gas V8, you lose the factory winch. These things are hard enough to keep cool without a massive spool blocking the radiator.

Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com

The post 2027 Ram Power Wagon Costs $90,000 With the Cummins Diesel appeared first on The Drive.

In the world of work, the debate is not “gas versus diesel.” Sure, there are times when a gasoline engine is the right tool, but diesel is the fuel of choice on most big jobs. Instead of arguing about which handle to grab at the pump, what I hear (or read) most people fighting about is engine layout. Some manufacturers swear by “V” cylinder configurations, and their loyalists follow suit; others, however, stake their claim on inline engines. So, which is best?

Former Caterpillar engineer and longtime semi truck dealer Jim Coles is a red-blooded believer in the inline-six. He began his career at Caterpillar in 1966 before opening a Peterbilt store in 1973, and over the next four decades, his network grew to 18 locations. Forgive me for sounding biased, but I’m inclined to believe Coles a bit more than the random keyboard warrior on Facebook truck groups.

Coles recently visited the Earthmoving Legacy Center in Elkader, Iowa, which then uploaded a 25-minute interview to its YouTube channel. In the video, he reminisced about his early years at Caterpillar in which they were developing purpose-built engines—many of them for off-highway use. The manufacturer prized the inline-six because it was naturally balanced, not to mention simpler to cool. And when it came time to mount new components to these engines, whether that be turbochargers or emissions equipment, they were a far better canvas to work with.

Specifically, Coles went on about the Caterpillar 3406, a 14.6-liter (or 893-cubic-inch) engine family that lasted more than 30 years in production between 1973 and 2007. It was internally referenced as the VITEL, standing for “vehicle industrial truck engine line.” Whether it was being deployed in earth-moving equipment, stationary applications, marine environments, semi-trucks, or whatever else, it was a rockstar.

“Caterpillar and everyone else did go into V-type engines,” Coles pointed out, mentioning the 90-degree RM180 and the 3408. “But V’s versus sixes were always more of a compromised design.”

“If you’ll notice today, sixes are all the way up to covering 1,100 hp,” Coles continued. “All the other V’s that were in the market—whether it be the 903 Cummins, the 555 Cummins, the 3208 Caterpillar, the 8V71 and 8V92 Detroits—all those V engines are gone. Nobody’s in the V business today, and rightfully so.”

Now, I doubt Coles has ever uttered the phrase, “Eight in a vee, you squat to pee,” but he seems to agree that “six in a row makes it go.” So if you drive a Cummins and get into a fight with Duramax or Power Stroke guys in the comments sometime, make sure to show this to ’em.

Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com

The post Listen to a Former CAT Engineer Explain Why Inline-Sixes Are Better Than V8s for Hard Work appeared first on The Drive.

Turbo lag can be cool, but it’s the enemy of sheer performance. While early boosted cars walloped drivers with frantic acceleration at high revs, engineers have thought and thunk for years on how to eliminate the power delay. There are a few ways to do it—like running sequentials, with a smaller turbo and another larger one for higher horsepower—but Stellantis‘ SRT Performance Division has another solution. It involves an e-compressor that spools big turbos quicker than exhaust gas can.

Now, you might be like me and wonder, “Doesn’t that already exist?” It’s actually quite a bit different from what Porsche does on the 911. Whereas that tech features an in-built motor-generator unit that sits between the compressor and inducer, SRT’s device—called eBoost Air—sits upstream of the Hurricane inline-six’s twin turbos. And while Porsche uses the MGU to directly spin the turbo, this SRT doo-hickey is simply force-feeding air to the turbos more quickly.

SRT explained in a press release that the whole idea is to make the engine drive more like a supercharged V8. Of course, that’s what a lot of people want anyway, but Stellantis developed the Hurricane engine family for a reason. Ram might be embracing the Hemi all over again, but it seems like this technology could find its home in future high-performance Jeep models.

When the exhaust gas flow finally catches up to the eBoost Air, the compressor simply disengages, and the feature is bypassed entirely. It doesn’t recuperate any spent energy, although it does require a 48-volt electrical system to function. The eBoost Air is only a “rapid-development proof of concept” for now, and Stellantis has work to do before it implements the tech on any Hurricane-equipped model in the United States. (At present, only certain non-Hurricane Jeeps and Ram 1500s with the Hemi V8 have a 48-volt mild-hybrid eTorque setup, so a potential solution could involve a secondary battery—though that’s unconfirmed and potentially undecided at this stage.)

Fitting this into the Grand Cherokee’s engine bay took some doing. The six-cylinder Hurricane has yet to make an appearance in a production version of Jeep’s midsize SUV, so even the basics needed to be addressed. On top of that, SRT engineers had to make room for what is effectively a third air intake for the little electrical compressor. Somehow, the team still managed to stand the project up in just seven weeks. Yes, weeks.

SRT notes that eBoost Air doesn’t add any extra power to the Hurricane; it only helps the engine reach higher power levels in a quicker fashion. The twin-turbo, 3.0-liter inline-six is already potent on its own, especially when it comes to the high-output variant with 540 horsepower and 510 lb-ft of torque. I personally enjoyed the momentary lag when I tested the Ram 1500 Tungsten a couple of years ago, but if you’re racing the quarter-mile, this eBoost Air gadget should be a real help.

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The post SRT’s New Quick-Spool Turbo Gadget Makes the Hurricane I6 Launch Like a V8 appeared first on The Drive.

Ford has built more hype for its upcoming electric truck than any other model in recent memory. It’s not because the Blue Oval believes people are clamoring for battery-powered pickups, but instead because the automaker believes it’s on to something special from a manufacturing standpoint. It’s been likened to a “Model T moment,” with the new assembly method driving the EV’s price way down. And now, we know what it’s called, as well as what it should cost: The Ford Fathom will launch at $29,945 after destination.

At least, that’s the plan. With so many variables in the car-building process, it’s borderline dangerous to project how much a vehicle will cost when it’s more than a year out—especially an EV. We saw starting prices fluctuate greatly, even from one month to the next, on the F-150 Lightning. But Ford seemingly understands this has to be different.

You know what else is different? That name. For everyone betting on Ranchero, well, I’m sorry. Ford claims it considered that moniker as a tribute to its original American ute, along with a few other historic nameplates, including Galaxie and Taurus. The choice to call the truck “Fathom” was layered, since that word has had more than one definition over time.

While it can mean “to measure the depth of; to sound” or “to penetrate and come to understand,” the word “fathom” once referred to the span of someone’s outstretched arms. “Sailors borrowed that span to measure water they couldn’t see the bottom of,” Ford writes. “And eventually the word came to mean something else entirely: to understand a thing completely. A name about measuring what you can’t see, that grew into a word about understanding. For a truck that started with years of trying to understand a specific customer, that was the whole brief in six letters.”

Marketing, baby. It makes the world go ’round.

Anywho, every not-a-Ranchero will have the hardware necessary for Ford’s BlueCruise hands-free driving aid, while offering bi-directional charging and more passenger volume than a Toyota RAV4 with a bed and a frunk. It looked pretty tiny in the photos we saw of it, although Ford keeps referring to it as “midsize.” Nobody even calls the Maverick that—it’s usually described as “compact truck”—so I’m curious to see if this midsize label has any merit or not.

We still have a lot to learn about this newfangled Ford Fathom, although we know that pre-orders for it will open in early 2027. It’ll be built at the company’s Louisville Assembly Plant using the fancy Ford Universal EV Production System, which will supposedly enable crews to complete Fathoms 40% faster than other vehicles currently being made there. A lot is riding on this rig succeeding, and I know I’m not alone in my curiosity to see how it all plays out; for example, the entire industry has to be watching closely.

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The post Ford’s New Electric Truck Is Called ‘Fathom’ and Starts at $29,945 appeared first on The Drive.

Ford hasn’t said anything officially, but a leaked order guide shows some key engine changes for the 2027 F-150. The dealer document was posted to the F150Gen14 forum late last week, revealing a new base engine as well as the reintroduction of a familiar powerplant for the top-shelf King Ranch and Platinum. Is this a response to Ram bringing back the Hemi and General Motors doubling down on V8s? Maybe, but rest assured that the Blue Oval’s boosted V6s aren’t going anywhere.

The first proof of that is the 3.0-liter EcoBoost engine now available in place of the old 2.7-liter. This won’t appease the folks who want to see small-displacement, forced-induction engines eradicated from half-ton trucks, but all signs point to this being a legitimate upgrade. Ford didn’t specify the 3.0-liter’s output in the order guide, but elsewhere in the automaker’s lineup, it makes anywhere between 400 and 418 horsepower with as much as 440 lb-ft of torque. For reference, the 2.7-liter made 325 hp and 400 lb-ft of torque.

You’ll find the 3.0-liter EcoBoost as the standard option in some F-150 XL, STX, XLT, and Lariat models.

The other noteworthy switchup for 2027 Ford F-150s is the 5.0-liter Coyote V8’s expanded availability. Previously, it wasn’t available in the King Ranch and Platinum models—only the 3.5-liter EcoBoost and its electrified PowerBoost variant. That’s no longer the case, as you can finally buy Ford’s fanciest trucks with a naturally aspirated V8 again. As far as I can tell, it’s still rated below the twin-turbo engine with 400 hp and 410 lb-ft of torque.

The big-picture takeaway here is that you can now get a V8 in every F-150 trim. Given the direction the full-size truck segment has been going in, it’s interesting to see more widespread availability of the traditional engine layout. Of course, these aren’t the simple pushrod lumps of yore, but it seemed like V8s were being phased out from half-tons completely—whether that be the customers’ doing or the automakers’. (Or the government’s.)

Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com

The post 2027 Ford F-150 Ditches 2.7L EcoBoost, Adds V8 Back to Top Trims appeared first on The Drive.

Nissan’s future is up in the air right now. Whether it sinks or floats, I can’t help but believe the Japanese automaker’s next steps will be must-see TV. With new CEO Ivan Espinosa leading the way as a true car guy, we could see some stellar enthusiast models before his tenure is over. (The R36 GT-R is already sounding pretty sweet.) And with news of a key senior management change on Tuesday, we know that Matthew Weaver—lead exterior designer of the polarizing Nissan Juke—will take over as the brand’s corporate executive of global design in October.

Weaver will replace Alfonso Albaisa, who has been at Nissan for nearly 40 years and served in his current position since 2017. Albaisa himself has led some genuinely noteworthy projects, of course, with the current-gen Z standing out as the most prominent for many. In addition to having a hand in practically every Nissan design for a decade-plus, Albaisa penned the Infiniti Prototype 9 and 10, with the former dropping in the late 2010s with a 1940s-era Grand Prix style. Pretty neat, if you ask me.

As for the Juke, Weaver and Albaisa worked together to give us that spunky lil’ crossover. Whereas Weaver was responsible for styling the car’s exterior, with its bugeyes and relatively giant rear haunches, Albaisa provided oversight and championed the unusual design. People love it or hate it—I, for one, am in favor of the Juke—but no one can say it looks boring.

Arguably, that’s what Nissan needs now more than ever. It’s undergoing a major rework to restore its cheapened image.

Don’t expect every new Nissan to look as radical as the Juke, but don’t be surprised if you see something extraordinary from the guy who brought it to you. Whether it’s a pavement-pounding performance car or a green-thinking EV, Weaver has shown that he’s not opposed to striking design.

Weaver will spearhead Nissan’s design efforts in an even greater capacity than before, with Albaisa serving as an advisor through December 31, 2026.

Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com

The post The Man Who Gave Us the Juke Will Take Over as Nissan’s Design Boss appeared first on The Drive.

Performance side-by-sides are like the sports cars of yesteryear in more ways than one. Not only are they a ton of fun, but right now, the industry is enjoying an old-school horsepower war. There’s a new top dog, too, as Polaris tossed a turbo on the RZR Pro R‘s 2.0-liter four-cylinder to achieve a walloping 275 hp.

The new king-of-the-hill is called the RZR Pro R Boost, and it makes 50 hp more than the naturally aspirated variant. That model was the benchmark not long ago, but it was outgunned by the 240-hp Can-Am Maverick R. Kawasaki’s 250-hp Teryx H2 hit the scene just last year, and now, Polaris has reclaimed its crown. (Rest assured: They’re all incredibly quick.)

Polaris isn’t messing around with some itty-bitty whirler. Instead, it’s tacking on a 60-millimeter Garrett turbo that’s supposedly engineered to develop peak performance up to 10,000 feet of elevation. Additionally, Polaris claims that the max output of 275 hp at 7,000 rpm and 223 lb-ft of torque at 6,000 rpm is possible in ambient temperatures up to 115 degrees Fahrenheit. Top speed remains unchanged at 92 miles per hour, but it likely gets there quite a bit quicker.

Dune warriors will be glad that Polaris hasn’t left the rest of the drivetrain alone to deal with the extra power. The engineering team placed major emphasis on cooling, as there’s a new dual-radiator setup that’s better for the engine, turbo, and transmission. What’s more, there’s a new high-capacity clutching system with better airflow. Polaris specifically says that it added cooling fins and a larger clutch design that should help extend the life of the ever-precious CVT belt.

Further downstream of the turbo 2.0-liter, the RZR Pro R Boost touts tougher, reinforced driveline components—think half shafts, which love to snap at the worst times. The front drive system is apparently beefier as well. That last bit is great news for folks who’ve had related problems with the “regular” RZR Pro R’s front diff in the past.

And while the powertrain is obviously the selling point here, the top-shelf RZR still rocks Dynamix suspension with rear bump control on Ultimate models and full-fledged Dynamix DVS on Ultra models. For those who don’t speak Polaris, that gets you active sway bar links that adjust up to 200 times per second, helping the rig to be extra responsive to the terrain. Anyone splashing for the Ultra model also gets a carbon fiber hood and seat bezels, an MPI GT steering wheel, and 32-inch BF Goodrich tires.

Just be prepared to pay for such a mighty machine. The RZR Pro R Boost starts at $49,999 and $53,999 for the two- and four-door Ultimate models, respectively, while the Ultra trim costs $52,999 and $56,999. In case you had any doubt, that makes this Polaris far and away the most expensive side-by-side on the market, as well as the most powerful.

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As someone who runs a Kubota tractor almost daily, it’s hard enough to keep diesel in the tank without someone stealing from you. Farms around Merced and Madera counties in California were having an even more difficult time as approximately 500 gallons of fuel went missing from their properties. The disappearance prompted a two-month investigation by the Merced County Sheriff’s Office, and now, they’ve arrested a local 55-year-old suspect in connection with the thefts.

There’s no telling at this point if the crook worked alone or collaborated with a crew, but stealing 500 gallons of fuel takes work. Odds are, they had a large holding tank somewhere to store it, but imagine if that weren’t the case. Collecting 100 five-gallon jugs would probably be pricier than just buying the diesel yourself (that is, assuming they didn’t steal the storage containers, too).

Farm diesel was the specific fuel in question, which is dyed red to indicate that it’s tax-exempt. That makes the total cost a little less—up to 90 cents cheaper per gallon than on-road diesel—but it’s not nothing. AAA reports that average diesel prices around Madera County are $6.73 per gallon, which puts farm diesel somewhere around $6 a gallon.

“Agricultural fuel thefts have a direct financial impact on local farmers and can disrupt critical farming operations,” the Merced County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. “This investigation remains ongoing, and additional charges or arrests may follow.”

While a potential $3,000 in stolen materials might not seem especially horrendous, considering the thefts that sometimes make headlines, it goes further than that. Small-scale ag operations don’t print money the same way that some high-volume farms do, and California is neither a cheap place to live nor a cheap place to run a business. Downtime can be just as impactful to ag workers as it is to truckers, so that makes these thefts even more egregious.

Don’t steal from anybody, and especially not from the mom-and-pop outfits.

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The post Police Arrest Farm Diesel Theft Suspect After Months-Long Investigation and 500 Gallons of Missing Fuel appeared first on The Drive.

I wrote a goofy blog earlier this week about an “officially licensed” Chevrolet shirt that was obviously designed by AI. The tee is on sale at TJ Maxx and Marshall’s right now, and several folks have come across it while shopping. Curious to know if it was indeed a legit piece of Chevy merchandise, I reached out to the automaker’s PR team. They just got back to me and said no, it’s not, and they’ll be taking the appropriate legal action to remove the shirt from stores.

In a nutshell, the shirt does a poor job of portraying the GMT800-generation Silverado with “regular cab,” “extended cab,” and “crew cab” depictions of the truck. The problem is that they all have just two doors, and the only difference is a progressively longer bed in each illustration. Poke fun at Chevrolet all you want, but it certainly knows its pickup truck nomenclature.

“We can confirm that this product did not go through GM’s official licensing approval process and does not meet GM’s licensing standards,” a Chevrolet spokesperson told me. “We are working with our partners to investigate how this product reached retail. We take the proper use of our trademarks seriously and will be taking action as appropriate.”

Huh! What do you know? I hadn’t a clue that my Monday afternoon pastime would become a piece of difference-making journalism. (OK, maybe that’s a stretch.)

In any case, this isn’t nearly as embarrassing for Chevrolet as some of the past snafus we’ve seen. Remember when Ram sold a patriotic t-shirt with an AI-generated Toyota Tacoma on the front? Yeah, that was definitely worse.

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The post Chevy Says ‘Officially Licensed’ AI Slop Shirt at TJ Maxx Is a Fake appeared first on The Drive.

Almost nobody is buying the new Dodge Charger, and it’s a problem. We talked to Dodge CEO Matt McAlear about it back in March, though when asked if it was time to panic, he replied that it was “too early” to tell. It’s been several months since that conversation, and I’m not seeing many more Chargers—except for when I refresh my YouTube homepage. Vloggers and influencers are eating them up, which could mean one of two things.

Either the Charger is the next great tuning platform, or it’s a certified flop. I think it depends on who you ask.

Now, I want to make it clear why so many YouTubers are featuring Dodge Charger builds on their channels. Dodge gifted a few of them to content creators—or, at least, loaned them out for the sake of making videos. They aren’t fully complete production models, but instead, they’re engineering take-off units that can’t be registered for road use. Rather than sending them straight to the crusher, it seems like Dodge had a better idea to stir up publicity. And look! It’s working!

Rob Dahm is one of the YouTubers currently taking the new Charger to its limits. In his video introducing the project, Dahm said it’s his to play with for two years, and he’s going to make a monster out of the SixPack’s boosted 3.0-liter inline-six.

Right now, Dahm is building the car to compete with others at Roadkill Nights. That’s a Dodge event, so it makes sense that the brand would contribute to the cause of cool cars in attendance. He was never going to leave it stock, and on Thursday, he uploaded a video showing the Charger with a new 3D-printed exhaust manifold that spools the bigger single turbo lightning-quick.

In all, Dahm seems sold on the Hurricane engine’s potential to make big power. And for what it’s worth, so am I. The only vehicle I’ve driven with one is the Ram 1500, and even in such a heavy pickup, that thing likes to party.

It’s not like the Charger is that much lighter, though. That’s what YouTuber Evan Shanks is currently working on with his car that Dodge gifted him. He’s entering the same bracket-style competition as Dahm, and while he also completed a large single-turbo swap, Shanks has moved on to removing weight from the 4,700-pound car.

When all was said and done, Shanks dropped the car’s weight by 816 pounds, dropping it below the two-ton mark. Since it’s not a street car, he removed the extra seats, airbags, sound system, and sound-deadening material. This helped to address what many people see as the new Charger’s worst problem—well, aside from the V8 that’s missing under the hood.

Dahm and Shanks are just a couple of YouTubers building new Chargers. They certainly aren’t the only ones.

Cleetus McFarland is making videos with a Charger Daytona Scat Pack EV, except Dodge didn’t gift it to him. Instead, he negotiated with a dealer who sold it to him for $39,485—half of its $78,970 MSRP. I knew these things were deeply discounted, but who could have guessed that was even possible on a new car?

McFarland has been far less kind to the platform. His latest upload is titled, “Testing The Worst Car In America.” I guess you can do that when there’s no pressure to please the company that built it. Anywho, he’s almost gone full Whistlin’ Diesel on this car, entering it in a tug of war and toasting the tires off it.

These three YouTubers have a cumulative follower count exceeding six million. Sure, there’s some overlap between them, but the reach is still huge. Dodge is doing what it can to control the narrative around the Charger, gifting it to folks like Dahm and Shanks, who it knows will make something cool with them. Meanwhile, McFarland—whose channel has nearly five million of those followers—is trashing the thing.

It’s quite the juxtaposition. Either way, there’s a lot on the line for Dodge, as millions of enthusiasts’ opinions about the Charger will be swayed one way or another by the end of it. The Detroit muscle manufacturer is banking on the cars it gifted winning ’em over.

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The post The New Dodge Charger Is YouTube’s Favorite Car to Build (or Destroy) Right Now appeared first on The Drive.

Toyota’s newest hot hatch, the GRMN Corolla, puts its Honda and Volkswagen rivals to shame—arguably in performance, but certainly in price. The car wears a ton of track-focused equipment, from forged wheels shod in Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires to carbon fiber front fenders and an adjustable rear wing, and they all come at a cost. Whereas a base GR Corolla will set you back $41,815 after destination, the GRMN kicks up the cost to $64,360.

In case you’re curious, that’s $13,630 more than a Golf R. The gap to the Civic Type R is even larger at $15,770. Even if you want to cross-shop the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, that 641-horsepower EV costs $2,860 less thanks to a recent price drop. And it should be said that this is all without a shipping charge, which normally runs $1,295 on the GR Corolla, but is unspecified for the GRMN.

So, what’s special about the GRMN Corolla, anyway? What do you get for all the extra cash?

You don’t get rear seats, for starters. You also don’t get any extra horsepower, as it makes the same 300 hp as the standard model. However, you do get 7 lb-ft more torque, for a total of 302 lb-ft. Toyota says it learned “valuable lessons for the evolution of the internal combustion engine” through its hydrogen-fueled Super Taikyu racer. Specifically, it boosted the torque between 4,000 and 4,600 rpm, which the company says is crucial for corner exit acceleration. It also threw on an intercooler spray system to maintain engine output at full throttle.

See, instead of a major power increase, Toyota made a host of chassis and suspension tweaks that supposedly result in a tangibly different driving experience. I can see how that’d be the case with the front and rear monotube shocks, which sport rebound springs for better traction on the inside wheel during sharp cornering. Likewise, tuned electric power steering and all-wheel-drive logic are said to provide better assist in turns, with the latter also optimizing rear torque distribution for straight-line speed.

Toyota also makes extensive mention of the GRMN’s aero, which includes a hood duct, fender ducts, front side spoilers, and the aforementioned trick rear wing. Drivers can alter the wing’s angle with a five-click adjustment that moves it one degree at a time. I almost can’t imagine an owner pushing the car hard enough to notice the difference here, but maybe I’m wrong.

Either way, the GRMN Corolla has all the neat features to make you feel like a racer. Crazy bodywork? Yup, you got it. No rear seats? Most definitely. But it’s hard to fathom spending $64,360 on one. Fortunately for Toyota, it doesn’t need to convince everyone that it’s worth the asking price—only 730 units will be sold globally, and that seems a lot more manageable.

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Ram is doing something no one else has really done before by rolling out an entire lineup of pavement-pounding muscle trucks. Of course, Ford gave us two generations of the supercharged F-150 Lightning, while Chevy made the 454 SS and Ram itself sold the Viper-engined SRT-10. But those were all singular models. There are three members of the Ram Rumble Bee family, and now we know that pricing starts at $62,790 for the entry model and $97,790 for the 777-horsepower SRT variant.

Anyone looking to scratch the itch for a V8 street truck might be more than happy with the base Rumble Bee, which packs a 5.7-liter Hemi with 395 hp. Or if you want to take a big step up, the Rumble Bee 392 makes a healthy 470 hp for $72,790. Ram will even sell you a 392 Track Pack, which adds better aero, handling, and braking for $82,790 total. Or you can go all-out with the SRT model rocking a blown 6.2-liter Hellcat V8 for just under six figures.

I was definitely curious to see where the Rumble Bee SRT landed in relation to the $102,790 TRX—basically the truck’s desert-running off-road variant. Though maybe that’s oversimplifying it. Each of Ram’s Rumble Bee models rides on a unique frame with a wheelbase that’s shortened 13 inches compared to the traditional crew cab. And then there’s the suspension. The Rumble Bee SRT runs dual-valve, semi-active Bilstein Damptronic Sky Shocks that tweak compression and rebound independently; meanwhile, the TRX sports Bilstein Black Hawk e2 adaptive shocks with remote reservoirs and special modes like Baja.

If you want to compare pricing with other makes, the base Ram Rumble Bee is a skosh more than the $59,995 Ford F-150 Lobo. However, the Blue Oval pickup hardly feels like a street truck. You’ll need the $10,250 Whipple supercharger kit to really wake it up, as that takes the 5.0-liter Coyote V8 to 700 hp and 590 lb-ft of torque.

All in all, I wouldn’t call the Rumble Bee SRT a bargain, but it still offers a heckuva lot of horsepower for right around $100,000. And the fact that it’s more than a regular ol’ crew cab with a supercharger under the hood makes it feel that much more special.

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The post 777-HP Ram Rumble Bee SRT Hellcat Street Truck Starts Just Under $100K appeared first on The Drive.

Like many other men and women of good taste, I’m worn out on greyscale vehicles. Sure—white, black, and grey cars look sleek, cool, and so on. But they’re boring. Most automakers would rather sell a dozen shades of the same few hues than offer something that’s not for everyone. Not Toyota, though, as it just dropped another cool color for its TRD Pro off-roaders. It’s yellow, and it’s called Honeycomb.

This new paint seems pretty shifty, but in a good way. Its finish appears almost eggshell or satin in the shadows, but once it gets in the sun, it pops. Honeycomb is a little less loud than Toyota’s last TRD Pro special color, WaveMaker, but it’s just as singular. I can’t think of another yellow truck off the top of my head besides that gimmicky Hummer special edition.

Honeycomb is available on the 2027 Tundra and Sequoia TRD Pro, while the Tacoma and 4Runner high-po off-road variants get a slightly different shade called Hot Honey. I sincerely can’t tell the difference between them, although it’s apparently significant enough for Toyota to distinguish them by name. Both look pretty good under the setting sun.

Toyota rolled out some other incremental updates for the 2027 Tundra and Sequoia TRD Pro. While we’re still waiting for the full-fledged TRD Hammer pickup, the company is dressing up the models we do get with standard red tow hooks and “Fox-enhanced” QS3 adjustable shocks. Those trick ISO-Dynamic seats with the air shocks in the back are also available on the Tundra now.

Whether or not you dig the Honeycomb color family, you can hopefully agree that more colors on cars is a good thing. And as far as visibility goes, it’s still a lot more subtle than the Solar Octane orange that Toyota rocked for a while.

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The post Toyota Keeps the Bold Colors Coming With New Yellow TRD Pro Paint appeared first on The Drive.

I’m pretty sure there’s more junk in the clothing industry than there is in the recycling biz. Watch one streaming documentary about it, and you’ll be thoroughly grossed out, too. (This is the one that radicalized me.) The situation is dire because there are far more clothes—especially cheap t-shirts—than there are people who could ever wear them. Budget chains like TJ Maxx aren’t helping that, and to make matters worse, they’re hawking cheap AI designs that besmirch Chevrolet‘s beautiful GMT800 pickup.

A feller named Cameron E. Schmidt stumbled across the graphic tee and posted it to a Chevy truck Facebook group I’m in. It shows three pickups labeled “regular cab,” “extended cab,” and “crew cab.” The problem is, every one of ’em has two doors, and the only difference between each truck is the length of the bed. Come on, print shop! You’ve got to be better than that!

I’m pretty positive the captions underneath are also AI-generated. Chevy has trotted out plenty of legendary ad copy, and it’s hard to believe these blurbs came from the same geniuses as the “Like a Rock” campaign. At least they got the model years correct, as Chevy didn’t sell a crew-cab Silverado half-ton until ’04. I learned something new today!

Schmidt isn’t the only one to spy the crappy shirts, either. Another named Stephen Sutton posted his findings in the GMT800s With Threatening Auras V2 group a few weeks ago, and the earliest example I can find was shared in that same group on June 22. Some are beige, some are black, and they’re being sold as “officially licensed product” at TJ Maxx and Marshalls. I’ve reached out to Chevy PR about these and will update this post with their response.

Really, this is more comical than anything. The only people who will buy these are well-meaning family members who know their son/brother/uncle loves Bowties, and people who are in on the joke. Giving more money to careless corporations kind of sucks, but to anyone who’s extremely online—which surely includes the GMT800 community—it just might be worth it.

Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com

The post Apparently AI Can’t Tell the Difference Between Regular Cab and Crew Cab Pickups appeared first on The Drive.

The Honda Ridgeline might be the internet’s favorite truck to hate on, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad pickup. If anything, it’s just old, as the current generation has been around for 10 years. Honda knows this, which is why it confirmed on Thursday that a new and more rugged model is on the way “within two years.” And it looks pretty darn boxy.

Even though you’ll have to hold tight for a while, I have a hunch it’ll be worth it. Honda is designing the new Ridgeline at its Southern California styling studio, and judging by the shadowy teaser photo that I brightened up in Photoshop, it’ll look decidedly more truck-like than the existing model. It has a strong jawline thanks to a front bumper that’s mostly straight up-and-down; it sits up higher with tall all-terrain tires; and the design team has chosen not to smooth the bed break line, although it’s sure to retain its unibody construction.

In addition to styling the truck in SoCal, Honda is engineering it in Ohio. Year after year, the Ridgeline is one of the most American-made vehicles—a trend that will seemingly continue on. Honda is staying tight-lipped on powertrain details for now, though you can’t help but assume it’ll borrow the new Passport‘s 3.5-liter naturally aspirated V6, maybe with hybrid assist.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Ridgeline adopt a lot more from the Passport, really. And why wouldn’t it? Honda did a stellar job with the new SUV, in both my opinion and that of those who have driven it for thousands of miles. Plus, the existing Ridgeline already rides on the last-gen Passport platform, and the next one will still be built at the Honda Alabama Auto Plant.

Honda confirmed that Ridgeline production will pause later this year so it can prepare to build the new one. This lines up with a previous report saying the midsize pickup would go away for 18 months. When it comes back, it’ll be interesting to see how much Honda caters to the contemporary truck crowd. Surely, a good middle ground exists. I hope Honda can find it.

Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com

The post Next-Gen Honda Ridgeline First Peek: It Looks a Lot More Like a Truck appeared first on The Drive.

Car obsessives with a keen eye can spot a high-performance model from a mile away. Sometimes, the differences are fairly obvious; the wing on an STI versus a normal Subaru WRX comes to mind. Other times, though, they’re more subtle. (I love hot hatchbacks, but even I have to squint to know if I’m looking at a VW Golf R or GTI at a glance.) But automakers are establishing a trend that makes it even easier to distinguish slow cars from fast ones: Brake caliper color.

Nissan has been doing this for a minute. On its most ordinary cars—think of the Rogue, Sentra, or dearly departed Altima—the brake calipers are painted silver. Even the base Z wears silver calipers. Step up to the Z Performance package, though, and you get red paint on the Akebono four-piston front and two-piston rear calipers. You’ll also find that shade on the Armada Nismo, a car that seems silly but is way better than it should be.

Then, the even sportier Nissan Z Nismo has bright red Akebono calipers. That car makes 420 horsepower, 20 hp more than the standard Z, and inherits two-piece iron-aluminum rotors from the R35 GT-R. Of course, it’s hard to communicate those differences from afar, but the distinguished caliper color helps.

If a Nissan has Brembo brakes, then it gets gold calipers. Remember the R34 GT-R? It had ’em from 1999 onwards. And so did the R35 when it landed in North America back in 2008. But the most extreme Nissans with carbon-ceramic brakes get yellow calipers, with the sole exception being the 2023 Z Proto Spec (it had yellow calipers but no carbon-ceramics).

It isn’t just Nissan, either. Rivian installs silver brake calipers on its dual-motor electric vehicles, while tri-motor variants get yellow. Top-of-the-line quad-motor models have blue brake calipers, and soon, so will the RAD performance variants.

I’m sure there are other brands doing it too.

Of course, there’s nothing stopping anyone from painting the calipers on their base model to pass as something more. I saw that on a Nissan once, except they painted the rotors, too. That… didn’t go well.

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Toyota sells a ton of off-road trucks, and it doesn’t lump every 4×4 into one category, either. Instead, on the 4Runner and Tacoma, it offers a high-speed TRD Pro model for desert junkies and a Trailhunter trim for overlanding folks. We’d heard that the full-size 2027 Toyota Tundra would get the Trailhunter treatment as well, and it has—but it’s not exactly the same. Instead of being its own trim, Trailhunter is a package available for the Tundra SR5, and it’s missing the signature high-rise air intake.

That’s not to say the Trailhunter package is a half-baked upgrade. Actually, I’d argue that it’s just right. Rather than gatekeeping essential four-wheelin’ features, it makes them available at a lower price while leaving out the unnecessary luxuries. Sure, you might not get leather in a Tundra with the Trailhunter add-on, but you do get Old Man Emu suspension, recovery hooks, skid plating, and 265/70 Michelin LTX Trail tires (equivalent to 31.6 inches in diameter) on 18-inch wheels.

Toyota hasn’t withheld its specialized off-road tech from the truck, either. It still gets Crawl Control, Multi-Terrain Select, and an electronically locking rear differential. In that way, it’s pretty similar to the TRD Off-Road package, although that features Bilstein shocks and Falken Wildpeak rubber.

And it’s not like you can’t add a snorkel if you want one. Importantly, the 4Runner and Tacoma Trailhunter’s snazzy intake is not a snorkel, as Toyota emphasizes. It isn’t water-tight, as its stated purpose is to raise the height where air is breathed in, hopefully keeping out dusty debris. Oh, and it makes a ton of turbo noise.

Tundra SR5s with the Trailhunter package also get bronze wheels and special badges, making them visually distinguishable from the million-and-one other versions of the truck.

One last differentiator between the full-size Tundra and other Trailhunter models is the powertrain—specifically, the lack of a hybrid option. Whereas the 4Runner and Tacoma come standard with an electrified 2.4-liter turbo-four, the Tundra SR5 is strictly available with a gas-only, twin-turbo, 3.4-liter V6. It makes plenty of power, at 389 horsepower and 479 lb-ft of torque, though any off-roaders wanting the hybrid variant with 437 hp and 583 lb-ft of torque will need to step up to another trim.

All in all, I’m OK with the Tundra’s Trailhunter upgrades being on the milder side. It means you don’t have to spend TRD Pro money—so, $75,000 or more—to get the features you want along with the ones you don’t need. I’m sure many will still shop upmarket, but at least the option is there for people with more sense than cents.

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The post 2027 Toyota Tundra Gets the Trailhunter Treatment, But Skips the ‘Snorkel’ appeared first on The Drive.

Can tools be art? Opinions on that question certainly vary, but I believe so. Hot rod designer Chip Foose apparently agrees, seeing as he took this 1970 John Deere 4020 tractor and restyled it to look more like a vintage sprint car than an antique soil tiller.

Foose modified the workhorse around 2010, just after his TV show Overhaulin’ aired its final season. While he made his name penning designs like the Hemisfear, which went on to become the Plymouth Prowler, Foose partnered with Deere for something called the Big Buck Sales Event. The snazzy tractor toured the nation, stopping at one dealer after another before being given away. Now, more than 15 years later, it sits in the John Deere Archives facility in East Moline, Illinois.

Legend has it that Foose saw similarities between the 4020, one of John Deere’s greatest hits, and classic circle track cars. That’s why he accentuated the long hood, which swoops up just before the cockpit, and gave it fat side pipes. The rear-end also sports the same boat tail as sprint racers from yesteryear, complete with “4020” hand-lettered on the rear.

It was surprisingly divisive when Foose modified the tractor. Apparently the only fanbase more opinionated than Porsche purists is John Deere diehards, and they disagreed with practically everything Foose did to the beloved 4020. You can still see the disgust in archived forum threads from years ago:

I doubt their attitudes have changed much in the time since, but as Heritage PR Manager Chris Boyens points out in this video on the Tractor Zoom YouTube channel, it’s not like 4020s were rare. John Deere made lots of ’em between 1968 and 1972. Boyens also explains that everything is totally reversible, if they ever chose to undo it. But why would they?

Maybe those guys were frustrated when new tractors became nearly impossible for owners to work on, and as they went looking for older models, they thought the singular Chip Foose model would’ve been the right fit for their farm. In any case, the tractor lives in climate-controlled comfort while others are still out there, earning their keep. Perhaps that’s the real reason they’re upset. If it’s not helping someone make a living, it shouldn’t exist at all.

But if you ask me, tools can be art, too.

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The post Hot Rod Designer Chip Foose Made This John Deere Tractor Look Like an Old Race Car appeared first on The Drive.

As someone who aspired to write about cars for a living largely because of the cool concept cars from my youth, I’m sorry to report that today’s moonshot design projects no longer get me goin’. At least, very few of them do. Have I grown jaded over the years? Or are concept cars not what they used to be? What if both are true? Or neither?

I know I’m not alone in feeling like this. It’s a conversation we have fairly often in The Drive‘s Slack. And when a topic is discussed so much in our group chats, we invoke Slack Law and write about it. (The idea here is that if we find it interesting enough to talk about time and again, then other people may find it interesting, too.)

Well, our Editor-in-Chief Kyle Cheromcha took it a step further and made a 30-minute film on concept cars, featuring five of automotive’s most influential designers.

The latest video on The Drive‘s YouTube channel features Alex Shen from Toyota’s CALTY Design Research Lab, who penned the FT-1 concept that became the new Supra; Jon Ikeda, former head of Acura design who styled the front-engine NSX concept; Tom Peters, the former head of performance car design at GM who designed the Indy Corvette, the 2007 Camaro concept, and more; Ralph Gilles, global head of design for Stellantis; and Sangyup Lee, the head of design for Hyundai and Genesis.

Droves of internet commenters lament that concept cars are “uninspired,” but spend time around the folks who draw, sculpt, and build them, and your opinion may change. Kyle’s hunch that something else has caused this vibe shift is the thrust of the video, and having watched the clip in its entirety, I agree. (And no, I’m not brown-nosing. Promise!)

I encourage you to hear from these design pros directly, not so you can buy into some corporate apologetic that blames less exciting concepts on shrunken budgets, but so you can get a glimpse into the process from people who devote their life’s work to creative expression. As you can probably guess, it’s not easy for said creativity to live in the same world as engineering constraints and safety regulations. But designers—at least, the ones we spoke with—make it work because they love cars like you and me.

And after listening to Kyle’s full chat with Jon Ikeda on The Drivecast, I’m inclined to believe he loves cars even more than I do.

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The post What’s the Point of Concept Cars Anymore? We Asked the People Who Design Them appeared first on The Drive.

Ford is about to do something sick in the World Endurance Championship: Race a naturally aspirated, 5.4-liter, Coyote-based V8 in the top-level Hypercar class. Whereas the Blue Oval manufacturer has most recently raced (and won) at Le Mans with a twin-turbo, 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6, it’s taking a more traditional route for 2027. And if that’s not enough to get you excited, maybe hearing the engine’s first fire will do the trick.

Seen here without any bodywork, Ford’s WEC hypercar is built around an Oreca chassis. The V8 is paired with a hybrid system that’s standardized across the class, and importantly, it was in place during the monumental first start. It’s a major milestone for the team, as Ford Racing WEC Hypercar Program Manager Dan Sayers explained, while adding that the engine was “designed, developed, and built in-house at our base in Michigan.”

“The firing of the engine at ORECA is more than a symbolic moment—it’s a critical validation step,” Sayers said in a press release. “We are doing everything from an engine perspective in-house, and we’re doing that because we can react faster, we can learn faster, and we can bring that back to the production side of the business. Hearing the Coyote V8 come alive within its intended home for the first time confirmed that months of integration work between the powertrain and chassis teams had paid off.”

I won’t delay your joy any longer. Here’s the clip:

Sounds nice and raspy, doesn’t it? A stationary sound byte isn’t enough to make a full judgment, but this dual overhead cam thumper could give the Cadillac hypercar a run for its money. Just listening to that thing transition from electric to engine power is enough to make a fan out of most folks.

The Drive‘s Deputy Editor Jerry Perez actually spoke with Sayers a while back, and he asked why Ford opted for a new, scratch-built V8 this time instead of another boosted V6. Sayers’ response was candid:

“We looked at turbocharged or normally aspirated—and again, with the normally aspirated, if you can achieve the performance parameters, the mass or the power, and the torque control, then the simplicity of not having turbos, not having intercoolers, makes the installation simpler. There are fewer things to go wrong with endurance racing, and we like to just keep things simple. Simple is good for endurance racing.”

Clearly, it’s good for the fans, too.

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The post Hear Ford’s Coyote V8 Hypercar Fire Up for the First Time appeared first on The Drive.

Paranoia is growing as cars become more connected, and not for no reason. Whether we’re talking about government surveillance or hacking thieves who steal vehicles in 30 seconds or less, the average driver has far more to worry about now than they did even five years ago. With craftier-than-ever crooks, people need more defense, and Ford has a simple-yet-effective tool for owners: A remote engine start inhibitor inside the Ford Pass app.

It’s bundled with the Ford Security Package, which owners of some 2024 and newer F-Series have had access to for a while now. What’s new is that Ford has expanded access to the feature across its lineup, as it now offers the remote killswitch on the 2026 Expedition, 2026 Bronco Sport, or 2026 Mustang Mach-E. Using it is super simple, too, as you just tap the “Monitoring” section of the Ford Pass home screen and swipe a slider. That’s it.

This type of built-in, factory-supported security tech has some clear benefits over aftermarket devices. For one, your dealer shouldn’t turn up its nose if you have any issues with it. And for two, there’s no tampering with the vehicle’s computers or relying on a third-party app or device to make it work. By opening the same app that tons of Ford owners use to remotely lock, unlock, and start their vehicles every day, they can make sure no one starts their vehicle—even if the key is left inside it.

While I’ve never met anyone who hates Ford’s door-mounted SecuriCode keyless entry system, this addresses a potential concern about it. If your key is locked in the vehicle and someone obtains your door code, they could easily drive away with it. This system ensures that no one can start the vehicle without access to your phone or the “engine start inhibit deactivate” code located inside the app.

And if the feature doesn’t work properly for one reason or another, like poor cell signal, users can simply input the aforementioned deactivation code and be on their way.

Ford combines this engine start inhibitor with stolen vehicle tracking, which is also part of the security package. Owners can even install a Ford-provided truck bed camera to monitor the contents in the cargo area. Interestingly, these features aren’t available on the F-150 Lightning, and it’s hard to say why. But if you’re the proud owner of a new F-150, Super Duty, Expedition, Bronco Sport, or Mustang Mach-E who’s been victimized by theft before, rest assured, this is for you.

If only it could protect your taillights…

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The post Ford Now Offers a Remote Killswitch on Almost Every New Model appeared first on The Drive.

When people hear the word “Hummer,” a lot of them think of the original H2. That rig debuted 25 years ago, which is crazy to think about if your mind is still filled with 2000s pop culture references like mine. If it weren’t for AM General building the big ol’ box for civilians near the start of the millennium, music videos and MTV Cribs would have looked a lot different. And to honor that, GMC is building a run of Hummer EVs in yellow—yeah, you know the shade.

GMC is calling it the Hummer EV Icon 25. It’ll be built in limited numbers with serialized plaques on the dash, but the press release doesn’t mention how many the manufacturer will make. In any case, you’ll know one when you see it, whether it’s a pickup or an SUV.

Yellow was the flagship launch color for the H2 back in 2002, and it stuck around through the model’s entire run, which ended in the 2009 model year. This time around, it’s part of a high-contrast two-tone exterior scheme, as all GMC Hummer EVs are black on the top and bottom. It’s also paired with a Jet Black interior on the Icon 25 model, though the hero color is used sparingly inside; it only pops up in a few places, like the dash plaque, as the stitching is white and decidedly more subdued.

That’s probably the only thing that’s subdued on the entire vehicle, of course. The Hummer EV makes up to 1,160 horsepower in tri-motor 3X spec, or 635 hp in the dual-motor 2X trim with the Extreme Off-Road Package. You can get the Icon 25 goodies on either model; just don’t ask how much it’ll cost, because GMC hasn’t said. Not yet, at least.

These will be available in the U.S. and Canada later this year as 2027 models. GMC is also adding four more exterior colors to the Hummer EV lineup: Dark Ridge, Azurite Blue, Dark Ember, and Deep Void Matte. I’m sorry to say that I don’t know what any of those look like, as the company’s PR people only sent photos of the yellow ones. Enjoy those, along with these heritage shots of the ’02 H2.

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The post GMC Is Making a New Yellow Hummer EV to Honor the Old H2 appeared first on The Drive.

Diesel engines hate cold weather. Negative temperatures cause fluids to thicken like molasses while zapping power from a truck’s batteries, making it awfully hard on your rig in the winter. Modern pickups have gotten pretty good at overcoming cold starts, but still, they have their limits—and this cold chamber in Southern California was built to exceed them. Banks Power froze a Cummins diesel Ram inside it to see how the pickup performs at -40 degrees.

The experiment was conducted with a 2024 Ram 2500 HD in peak condition. Banks put new Interstate AGM batteries under the hood and swapped the 6.7-liter’s fluids for fresh Amsoil products, like the brand’s Signature Series 5W-40 oil. Winter diesel was used in combination with an Amsoil additive to prevent gelling, too. They even made sure to replace the fuel-water separator before testing for good measure.

Turbodiesel godfather Gale Banks introduced the test by listing four major factors in diesel engine start procedures: ambient temperature, coolant temperature, heat of compression, and manifold air temperature. You can only control so much, but thanks to block heaters and intake air heaters, you can augment the second and fourth factors.

To prove that block heaters make a massive difference, Banks tested the truck with and without one. They measured coolant temp, resting voltage, cranking voltage, and cranking RPM in various conditions, with a 75-degree Fahrenheit start acting as the best-case scenario. The results are telling:

Without a block heater at -20 degrees Fahrenheit, the coolant temperature matches the outside air. That makes it far harder for the engine to start and reach optimal operating temperature. You can see evidence of that as the engine could only crank at 82 rpm during that test—a 46.9% loss in piston speed, which a diesel engine depends on to start. And keep in mind that this test was performed with 1,500 watts of power warming the intake air, supplied by a dual-element Banks Power Monster Ram.

If you look at the bottom chart, you’ll notice that the block heater warmed the coolant temperature to 32 degrees Fahrenheit despite the same -20 degree ambient temp. This results in significantly less wear on an engine, given that internal cylinder temps can exceed 300 degrees on startup. If the coolant in the water jacket surrounding the cylinder is warmer, and the temperature difference isn’t so great, then you have a happier engine for longer. (It’s worth noting that the piston speed still dropped 38% compared to the warm weather start, though the -20 degree ambient temperature test with block heat was performed with only a single 750-watt intake air heater element.)

Even at -30 degrees Fahrenheit, the block heater helped boost coolant temperature to 20 degrees. The truck also achieved 89 cranking rpm with heat from a 1,500-watt, dual-element Monster Ram intake.

Tumbling temps took a toll on the truck as it completely failed to start at -40 degrees. With a cranking voltage of just 6.4 volts, the batteries couldn’t provide the juice necessary to keep the ECU awake. Needless to say, the Monster Ram didn’t get the opportunity to help, though the block heater kept coolant temps at 9 degrees Fahrenheit.

These tests show why hardware matters so much. Block heaters should be a no-brainer for diesel truck owners in cold-weather states, and clearly, heated intake air matters as well. Cummins installed factory grid heaters on pickups like the 2024 model used in this test, though many have suffered from a faulty bolt that melts and finds its way into the engine. You have to assume that’s why Cummins switched to glow plugs in 2025, and that’s absolutely one of the biggest perks of a Monster Ram intake. Now, they even sell one with a triple-element setup utilizing 2,250 watts.

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The post Torture Test Shows How a Cummins Diesel Survives Cold Starts Down to -40 Degrees appeared first on The Drive.

Volvos are unusual by nature. It’s arguably their greatest trait. And while the modern ones are a little less quirky than the old bricks, that can be addressed. Take this 2018 Volvo V90 in Big Bird Yellow, for example. It was totally overhauled by SARSYS, a company that performs friction testing on airport runways, and it features a slew of specialized equipment like a fifth wheel and tire underneath the trunk.

SARSYS stands for Scandinavian Airport and Road Systems. Previously, Saabs were the outfit’s vehicle of choice, but it later switched to Volvos (RIP Saab). This specific rig is a T5 Inscription model with a 2.0-liter turbo-four making 250 horsepower and 258 lb-ft of torque. And because it’s the fancy trim, it has a panoramic sunroof, adaptive cruise control, and headlight washers. Nice!

As for that extra wheel, it’s a key component in the friction testing setup. It’s pneumatically powered, and there’s an onboard air compressor that enables it to lift and lower. I was totally unfamiliar with this type of tech, but I found a description of how it works on SARSYS’s website:

“The measuring wheel is not attached to the chassis of the host vehicle, but rather it is only connected to the rear axle via a spring. This unique design guarantees that the vertical ground pressure is absolutely constant at 1,400 Newtons, consequently yielding highly reproducible measuring results. The measuring tire has a material, shape, and tread which closely resemble those of a normal aircraft- or car-tire, depending on area of usage. This gives friction readings that closely correlate with true friction values that are received from aircraft or car operations.”

Data is relayed to the secondary screen between the front seats, which also acts as a control center. It’s being sold on Cars & Bids with all of this equipment still intact, and even if you don’t have much use for friction testing equipment, you could surely do something with the Kenwood NX-3000 two-way radio, right?

Maybe the most inconvenient modification, besides the hole in the cargo area, is the rear-seat-mounted water tank. Or if you plan to use this for its intended purpose rather than as a daily driver, perhaps that’s one of the Volvo’s perks. Either way, it supplies water for the sprayer system that’s meant to simulate conditions when a dry surface turns wet. The seller explains in the comments that, when the tank is full, you shouldn’t go over 60 miles per hour. Noted.

SARSYS’s entire fleet of tester vehicles and trailers is painted this signature yellow shade, so you can see them from a mile away. (That’s purely anecdotal, but you get the point.) It’s also the entire reason I clicked on the for-sale ad, and only then did I learn the rest of this information. I imagine it would be a hit at your local Cars and Coffee. Don’t you?

Bidding ends on this car Tuesday, July 14. There have been 25 bids at the time of publishing, and the highest sits at $6,800—pretty cheap for a car with just over 25,000 miles. Then again, it’ll take a special type of person to buy it. You can bet they’re out there, though.

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The post This Volvo V90’s Most Bizarre Feature Isn’t the Paint. It’s in the Trunk appeared first on The Drive.

The internet is a strange place. I can guarantee you that none of our ancestors could have guessed we’d be watching a Hot Wheels car run in place for a week and a half via livestream, but here we are. It’s the work of Diecast Endurance on YouTube, and since running a tiny Ford GT on a belt sander for 13,459 scale miles a couple of weeks ago, the host has been torturing a miniature Mazda 787B almost ever since.

So, there was actually one car in between the two little Le Mans winners: A Toyota Soarer that lasted three days on the punishing contraption. But that thing couldn’t hold a candle to the Mazda prototype, which has been going for 284 hours at the time of publishing. Can you believe it?!

The ticker on the left-hand side of the screen says the Hot Wheels has elapsed 30,615 scale miles. For reference, the Earth’s circumference is 24,901 miles, and the real Le Mans-winning 787B covered just 3,059.79 miles in 1991. Even when you strip away the scale qualifier, the actual measured distance it has traveled is wild at 478 miles and counting.

YouTube livestreams are apparently limited to 12 hours if you want to archive them automatically, and the channel is currently on its 29th separate upload for this car. It’s playing in the background as I write this, with the constant whir of the plastic wheels on the belt.

The amount of accumulated grit on the Mazda’s metal body is impressive. Although the car started this experiment with a totally white paint job and blue decals, there’s a lot of black spattered on its profile—particularly, the right side. Not to jinx it, but the whole car is shifting around pretty seriously now as the rear-left wheel slides back and forth on its axle. This wear is shown not only in the micromaterials that have been shaved off, but also in the temperatures, as the two wheels I mentioned are the hottest at 88 degrees and 89 degrees Fahrenheit. (The ambient temp is 86.6 degrees, while the cockpit is a skosh toastier at 90 degrees flat.)

I have no idea how long this trial will last. I doubt anyone saw it going for a week, let alone almost 12 days. It’ll be sad when it finally does go, but one thing is for sure: The 787B set one heck of a benchmark, and I’ll be curious to see if anything else can beat it.

Godspeed, little guy. Or as they say in Japan, 神のご加護がありますように!

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The post 24 Hours? This Hot Wheels Mazda 787B Has Been Driving on a Belt Sander for 11 Days appeared first on The Drive.

Ruf is one of those performance car companies that does very little wrong, if anything. Most folks know the brand for its Yellowbird: a Porsche 911-based, twin-turbo sliding machine that hit 211 miles per hour in 1987. It certainly didn’t stop there, though, as Ruf is still building wickedly powerful machines with P-Car influence. Its latest is actually an engine—a boosted, 4.8-liter flat-eight making more than 1,000 horsepower and 737 lb-feet of torque–and it’s debuting at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

The horizontally opposed power plant finds its home for now in a CTR3 prototype body that’s been stretched 3.9 inches. Ruf plans to stuff it in a production car later on, though it’s unclear what shape said car will take. All I know is that this test mule looks sick, especially in that black-and-yellow livery. And it has a six-speed manual!

Ruf has yet to reveal many details about the B8 engine, as it’s called, only divulging that it was designed and developed in-house. As far as I can tell, there’s never been a production car with a flat-eight; only Porsche motorsport specials in the 1960s. That would make it pretty tough to copy anyone else’s homework, I assume.

There’s a special event at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this week where bystanders can hear the engine fire for the first time. (We even got a save-the-date invite.) The B8 Prototype will run up the famed Goodwood hillclimb twice a day from Friday, July 10, through Sunday, July 12. And who better to drive it than beloved race pilot and Top Gear alum, Tanner Foust?

I’ll be on the lookout for more deets, and you can bet I’ll update this blog with the flat-eight’s exhaust note when it gets posted online. (Update: It’s here! Fast forward to 4:09 if it doesn’t start there automatically.)

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The post Ruf Just Brought Back the Flat-Eight Engine With a Clean Sheet Design Making 1,000+ HP appeared first on The Drive.

When you fish a car out of a lake or pond after it sat there for who knows how long, the results are always disgusting. I mean, what do you expect to find? A showroom beauty that just smells… fishy? Anywho, this 6.2-liter V8 out of a Chevy Camaro SS that was submerged in the Ohio River for years is a prime example. Not only are there rust and barnacles on the outside, but the inside is gross with mud, oil, and other types of slimy slime.

There’s an hour-long teardown video on the I Do Cars YouTube channel for those with time to kill. If you’re taking your union break, then stick with me for a minute or two. I’ll show and tell as briefly as I can while still showing just how bad this engine is.

A quick walkaround reveals a little bit about the sad state of this L99 V8, but not all of it. It’s difficult for Eric, the host, to even get a socket on most of the bolt heads as they’re caked with whatever-the-heck. There isn’t much silver left on this engine; really, it’s more orange and brown than anything.

Job number one was removing the drain plug. Once that was done, enough stagnant river water poured out to fill a Purina Tidy Cats litter container. Oil eventually followed, along with some nasty chunks of debris. Oi.

The intake manifold could have been far worse, but taking off the valve covers revealed some atrocities. The rockers were practically frozen with rust, and after further investigation, Eric discovered it was missing a pushrod. How does that happen? He suggests that someone might have removed it beforehand to hopefully solve a ticking problem, and y’know, I wouldn’t put anything past a fifth-gen Camaro owner. (I kid.)

Most of the cylinders were filled with mud, though surprisingly, the sleeves weren’t horrendously damaged. One was even clean, though that could have been because it sucked in some water before shutting down. There was still some rust that made the sleeves less than desirable. And since you can swap them out for a new set, I don’t know why anyone would want to try salvaging what was already there.

The pistons certainly didn’t fare any better, as Eric had to remove three rusty ones before getting the engine to turn. He did eventually force the crankshaft to rotate, which forced out tons of crumbly gunk. It took a lot of work to get there, though, and practically every step was filthy.

Maybe the most visually disturbing parts of the teardown were the camshaft removal (which Eric refers to as the “slime stick”), the bellhousing extraction, and the torque converter dislodging. I wouldn’t want any part of those jobs. But then again, this fella surely knew what he was getting into when he acquired the lump.

Having torn it down completely, Eric expressed how pleasantly surprised he was with the engine’s resistance to its surroundings. “This whole thing came apart. I did not expect any of that,” he said. “I broke one exhaust manifold bolt, but they do that when they’re not in rivers, or lakes, or ponds, or streams. I just can’t believe I got the whole thing apart.”

So, if anything, I guess we should give props to the team at General Motors. Here’s yet another reason to love the LS family of engines.

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The post This Is What Four Years in a River Does to a GM 6.2L V8 appeared first on The Drive.

President Trump pardoned a diesel mechanic convicted of violating the Clean Air Act back in November, and now, he’s done it again. On the eve of Independence Day, the commander-in-chief granted clemency to more than half a dozen individuals who had previously been dealt prison sentences, hefty civil penalties, and serious criminal fines. It’s the latest development in what can only be described as an about-face regarding the federal government’s stance on environmental enforcement.

The president said during an Oval Office news conference that these cases came to his attention “because [he] noticed they were arresting people for fixing their car.” He later added, “We rule by common sense.”

He’s referring to the use of defeat devices, which enable vehicles to operate without federally mandated emissions equipment like diesel particulate filters and exhaust gas recirculation systems. DPF and EGR are frequently blamed for expensive repairs, as well as extensive downtime for commercial vehicles. The broad term “defeat devices” can refer to hardware or software, which are frequently sold together as delete kits. In short, the hardware replaces the troublesome components, while the software rewrites code on the vehicle’s electronic control unit so it will still run.

Joining Troy Lake, the previously pardoned owner of Elite Diesel Service in Wyoming, are Joshua Davis, Matt Geouge, Jonathan Achtemeier, Tim Clancy, Ryan and Wade Lalone, Barry Pierce, Aaron Rudolf, and Mackenzie Spurlock.

Of course, these aren’t the only mechanics and tuners who have been found guilty of emissions tampering. The Environmental Protection Agency spent years prioritizing Clean Air Act enforcement, going as far as raiding a person’s home to confiscate the defeat devices they were selling. Much of that has been undone under Lee Zeldin, the current administrator of the EPA, who has emphasized deregulation during his tenure. Some of his biggest moves in the automotive space include killing auto start/stop and telling truck makers to stop forcing immediate power restrictions when vehicles run low on diesel exhaust fluid.

While there has been some mixed messaging lately, with the Department of Justice pursuing diesel truck owners’ data in one high-profile case, the shift seems clear: Neither the president nor the EPA is particularly concerned with enforcing the Clean Air Act when it comes to diesel vehicles. That’s a stark reversal, considering the previous administration’s stance. Where it could go from here is still uncertain, but don’t be surprised if you hear more news on this topic going forward.

Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com

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Some of the world’s favorite automotive journalists just so happen to have killer car collections, too. Chris Harris owns a Ferrari 512 Testarossa and Porsche 911 GT3 Touring, among other special machines; Doug DeMuro has the Porsche Carrera GT and Ford GT. I have… none of those. The best I can do is an old Ford dump truck. And while that might keep me from owning Maranello’s next halo model, I hope that McMurtry—maker of the mind-bending Speirling fan car—won’t hold it against me.

I’m judging this entirely based on the boutique manufacturer’s website, which includes a questionnaire for anyone interested in buying the Speirling Pure production variant. See, whereas some companies want you to have a garage full of their greatest hits before allowing you to purchase the latest one, McMurtry seems far more approachable. All I’m missing to buy the thing is the $1.3 million, plus taxes and fees.

McMurtry asks a few simple questions, such as, “Where do ya live?” and “How do you plan to use the car?” I reckon both of those are relevant. And while they do ask what your current car collection looks like, it’s at the bottom of the list, and it’s not like they expect you to own another McMurtry since this is the first.

As best as I can tell, I don’t have to disclose my net worth or my social media follower count. Instead, McMurtry is more interested in which race tracks I enjoy (Maple Valley Raceway from Forza comes to mind). The form even has a space for questions you’d like to ask! How considerate is that?

Honestly, the part I’m most curious about is the height and weight limit to drive one of these. The electric car’s 1,000 horsepower, 1.55-second zero-to-60 time, and >3G cornering look violent enough for a Stig-sized driver. What if you’re 6’5″ and 290 pounds like me? Maybe that’s a question I should consider asking.

Anyway, this is a truly special car that was built to break records and challenge what people thought possible. The downforce and the fan are the biggest party trick, and the Speirling is eligible to compete in Global Time Attack if you’re so inclined. Just make sure your bankroll is ready for the hit.

Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com

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You’ve probably heard that supercar companies sell SUVs to survive. Porsche inadvertently kicked off the trend with the Cayenne, Lamborghini followed later with the Urus, and even Ferrari hopped aboard the bandwagon with the Purosangue. But is that statement about survival true? Well, yeah… kinda.

This debacle is the subject of The Drive‘s latest YouTube video, hosted by my friend (and boss) Kyle Cheromcha. (Huh? What’s a brown-noser?)

Anywho, Kyle spends a solid 12 minutes diving into the facts and half-truths behind high-end performance brands selling out with super SUVs. As it turns out, there’s a lot more nuance driving your childhood favorite brands to sell four-door family haulers.

Now, don’t hear me wrong. This is no apologetic for mega corporations. Instead, it’s an explainer on why some manufacturers have no problem with obvious cash grabs, while others maintain at least a shred of dignity in developing their SUVs. Also, let’s be real: It’s fun when a car that shouldn’t be able to perform, does.

And that’s coming from a guy who towed a horse trailer with a Bentley.

Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com

The post Exposing the Lies About Why Supercar Companies Sell SUVs appeared first on The Drive.

Almost every conversation about AM radio starts the same way: “When’s the last time you even used it?” That’s a fair question, but there’s an entire cohort of people who believe it’s the wrong one. Instead, they’re convinced that how often you use a tool does not define its usefulness; its effectiveness does. That’s why there’s a new bill making its way through Congress attempting to lock in AM radio for every new car, whether automakers want to offer it or not.

It’s called the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act, and it’s part of a larger bill by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce called the Motor Vehicle Modernization Act of 2026. There are talks of it being absorbed by yet another proposal—the Build America 250 Act—which includes plenty of other transportation tidbits, from highway safety programs to bridge rehabilitation. The latter bill was introduced on May 18, and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee advanced it just a few days later with a bipartisan 62-2 vote. It still hasn’t passed the House of Representatives, meaning it’s in the early stages, but support for the bill seems strong so far.

This isn’t the first time lawmakers have pushed for an AM mandate. If you’ll remember, there was an identically named bill proposed in 2023, but it was met by strong automaker opposition. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation—a collective that represents Ford, VW, Toyota, and more—put out a joint response with the Center for Automotive Research, saying high-voltage EV powertrains interfere with AM signal reception. Additionally, they cited high costs as a key factor in ditching AM, with receivers costing up to $70 a piece. That would total $3.8 billion in costs for car companies by 2030.

So long as it can be packaged with the Build America 250 Act, this push for required AM stands a much stronger chance of passage. It has bipartisan support, which is huge, not to mention an expedited timeline. Republicans and Democrats alike want the bill to pass before September 30, which is when the current highway and transit funding authorities expire under the last surface transportation law. If the House, Senate, and President don’t approve it before then, federal funding for highways, bridges, and transit programs could lapse.

The opposition to AM radios in cars has just one qualm, and that’s cost. Others in favor of an AM mandate affirm it for a laundry list of reasons. Rather than asking people how often they use the low-tech feature, they believe the better question to be, “What will you do if the alternatives don’t work?” Much of the zeal backing the legislative push boils down to just that: What if? Should a natural disaster wipe out all other communication, or a government meltdown force widespread unrest, or any number of variety of catastrophes take place, they press on whether it’s worth saving money—as a manufacturer or as a consumer—to forego AM.

It’s currently in Washington’s hands to decide.

Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com

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